Lockerbie | Thirty Years On

Will never forget that night and how events unfolded with various newsflashes during the evening.

Nicholas Witchell presented the first news report I saw, which was over on BBC1.

I remember flipping between the channels awaiting the next update.

Eventually over on ITV, Shereen Nanjiani presented the first newsflash on Scottish TV.

Sandy Gall then appeared shortly afterwards. And eventually News at Ten later with Sandy and Alastair Stewart. Remarkably, the programme only ran for its normal timeslot of 30mins, if I recall correctly.

In the days when news gathering was still quite a mechanical affair and not like today's instantaneous hand held world.

ITN then had news reports throughout the evening and an extended edition of News at Ten the following day.

Kaye Adams was one of the first news anchors/reporters on the scene, back in the days when she was part of STV ITN News Team.

Over on the BBC, I believe it was Michael Buerk who presented the Nine on the night.

Even by today's standards, the Lockerbie disaster probably remains one of the biggest news events ever in UK history, given the nature of the plot and so on.

We are reminded just how far television news and newsgathering in general has progressed in the last 30 years.

I've put these in spoiler tags to ease loading times...

The first newsflash from ITN:



A BBC Newsflash shown on BBC2:



2 further ITN Newsflashes and a Special Report:



Channel 4 Newsflash:

This excellent documentary features the breaking reports of the Lockerbie disaster, in particular how Border Television had the first pictures of the aftermath and found itself the focus of the world’s media.


(From 16’30”)

Nice piece here from Martin Lewes of BBC Radio Cumbria on how they abandoned the office Christmas Party to cover the story - initially for the whole BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2007/09/11/martin_lewes_memoryshare_feature.shtml

A wreath was laid at the memorial by Fiona Armstrong as well.

SO Scottish had the first newsflash then before Des O'connor? First ITN on was round 20.13? Never know STV did one. It would Who did that doc above "Newsflash: Stories That Stopped the World" got it slightly wrong on who did the first newsflash. I would surprised if Border didn't do one as well.

Interesting to see how in the space of 10 years the BBC News website has degenerated into LARGE font, and vastly reduced written detail. I’ve read that page quite easily on my iphone. Progress eh ?

I was on shift that night as a trainee engineer in the BBC's London Switching Centre.
One of the big problems with that area, is that there was very little connectivity at all to get video signals back (and this was before SNG trucks).
I think that either Manchester OBs were trying to get trucks to Lockerbie, a 150 mile drive or possibly Glasgow OBs (75 miles)
There was a BT inject point into their network that everyone was trying to use, but it's no surprise that Border TV were first to get pictures out. The BBC permanent vision feed was one circuit from Glasgow to Manchester via the Carlisle switcher which was always busy (discussed on here previously). In the following days various injects and temporary radio links went into service as the coverage continued.

The night was made even more horrific as one of my colleagues working with me had family in the town itself, and of course it was also well before cellphones.
A night that sticks in the mind, and not one that anyone would wish to happen again.

I'm assuming Scottish has the first local newsflash with ITN giving the national newsflash? It just goes to show that the regions did and still do play a vital part when major events happen.

Sorry - but there's a time and a valid thread to pick faults with the BBC font and website readabillity..
..and this really isn't the one. Thanks.

A really good post by Commseng (a thumbs up kudos is too casual for this subject) and shows how far newsgathering has come, and the problems the broadcasters had in the past.

We seem to forget that something like that happened today (heaven forbid, and thanks to the countless unseen people making sure it doesn't) Sky/BBC would have at least a handful of camera phone outputs to choose from. Back in the day, see where the nearest crew were, and whilst they were trying to get to the scene, try and find enough space in the circuts to get the pictures back to Television Centre or Wells Street.

A special edition of Lookaround was shown this evening and features about the tragedy and Lockerbie’s low key remembrance services took up almost the entire programme. Fiona Armstrong was interviewed at Lockerbie. The programme is available to watch on Border’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/itvborder/videos/560398227734489/

The 30th Anniversary was also the subject of tonight’s Border Life - I’m not sure if this was shown across the Border region or just on Border Scotland.

Regarding the first newsflashes on the night itself, I’d be surprised if STV provided one before the first ITN report at about 8.13. Lockerbie is not in the STV region, of course. Border Television flashed messages on screen during the evening asking all staff to report for duty at the Dumfries Royal Infirmary - the first of these may have appeared before the ITN news report, so viewers in that area would have known something was amiss first. I’m unsure if any other mention was made on Border in the early evening. Emergency services originally believed they were dealing with a gas explosion or a small military plane crash.

A little known fact is that the first news crew on scene was actually from Tyne Tees, as Border staff were off duty at their Christmas party. Both companies had a prescience on scene over Christmas.

It has been suggested that the Carlisle based TV sub opt was dropped in the aftermath of the disaster as its (limited) facilities were commandeered by network coverage. I imagine Manchester were providing plenty of coverage in their opts anyway.