The touching true story of Lockerbie’s ‘laundry ladies’ who cleaned victims’ belongings so they could be returned to their grieving families
By MARIA CHIORANDO FOR MAILONLINE[1]
Published: 12:54, 17 May 2025 | Updated: 12:55, 17 May 2025
On 21 December 1988, 270 people were killed in the worst terrorist attack on British soil when a bomb exploded in the hold of flight Pan Am 103, while it was en route New York's JFK airport from Heathrow[2].
Among those who died were 43 British citizens and 190 Americans, in what was the first major act of terrorism against US citizens. A further 11 people on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie also lost their lives.
Now, the BBC[3] has created a six-part series about the tragedy that focuses on 'Scottish and American investigators who sought to bring the perpetrators to justice, and the community who came together in Lockerbie and across the Atlantic'.
Among those featured were group of 16 women, who would go on to be known as the 'Lockerbie ladies'.
According to the US' Federal Bureau of I[4]nvestigation: 'Some of the Lockerbie women volunteered to clean soldiers' uniforms, and that thoughtfulness turned into something more. The "laundry ladies," as they became known, began to clean and carefully fold and package the recovered clothing of the victims so that the items could be returned to loved ones.'
Personal effects and clothing recovered from the scene were kept in a warehouse, which became known as the 'property store'.
The laundry ladies worked in shifts - it would take them over a year to clean everything.
Their goal was to find, painstakingly clean, and then return personal items belonging to the victims to their families.
These efforts would inspire the FBI[5] to create its Victim Services Division.
The first episode of the BBC's new drama (pictured) about the Lockerbie disaster airs on Sunday evening
Comprising 72 people based in Washington, at the headquarters of the Bureau, these agents have found and returned the personal possessions to families of people killed in the 9/11[6] attacks, as well as the Boston marathon, Bali bombings, and the 2016 Florida[7] nightclub shooting.
Elma Pringle, Josephine Donaldson, and Moira Shearer - the last surviving laundry ladies - were interviewed by the FBI in 2018.
Speaking about their contribution, Elma said: 'We never actually thought about it at the time. It was just, I think, everybody wanted to do something.'
Moira added: 'There's lots of people in Lockerbie that we'll never know who were really kind and done a lot and never said a word about it.'
According to Elma: 'But there was a lot of people - older people - that couldn't come and do that. But they baked.
And they would turn up at the kitchens with sponge cakes and scones, just forever. It was just for something to do. You wanted to just do something - rather than just sit there - and help.'
'I know, mom's dead now, but she baked and baked - and she was a crackin' baker,' Josephine said.
Josephine Donaldson (pictured) helped clean, press, and carefully wrap many garments, which were returned to family members of the victims
The nose of Pan Am flight 103 in a field in Lockerbie, after a bomb in the hold was detonated, killing everyone on board - as well as 11 people on the ground
One of the most difficult things to do was to find out which items belonged to which passenger.
Rolls of film from the plane were developed, and the ladies looked at the photos in order to match items to the decedents.
Among those who were reunited with clothing belonging to a deceased loved one was Suse Lowenstein. Her son Alexander - called Alexi by his parents - was aboard the flight, and was wearing a red jacket.
Alexi, 20, was one of 35 Syracuse University students travelling back to the States from London for Christmas.
Suse, a sculptor, told The Sun[8] that many months after the attack, a US State Department official knocked on the door - her husband Peter opened it. The official was holding several packages: inside were items of clothing that had been carefully washed and pressed, before being neatly wrapped in tissue paper.
Among the items was Alexi's red jacket, one of the many garments which had been gathered by the ladies.
With help from police forensic officers, they had managed - via a painstaking process - to find out who the jacket belonged to, so it could be returned to their family members.
Peter, who died in May 2018 at the age of 83, asked the official: 'How in God's name did you know that this was our son's?'
LOCKERBIE LAUNDRY LADIES: Elma Pringle (pictured, left), Moira Shearer (pictured, centre), and Josephine Donaldson (pictured, right) said they 'wanted to do something' after the tragedy. The Ladies have been praised for their work, which inspired the FBI to set up its own victim services division
The couple then spent several months learning about the Lockerbie Laundry Project.
Suse explained that the ladies had managed to work out who the jacket belonged to by developing a roll of film from the plane.
In some of the snaps, Alexi was wearing the red jacket, which was then carefully cleaned, wrapped, and sent back to his parents.
'They had gone through all of our Alexi's photographs and noticed him wearing this red jacket and made the connection. It was truly unbelievable,' Suse said.
Suse said she would never forget the kindness of the women, and described having Alexi's clothes as 'such a comfort', adding 'I cannot tell you how meaningful that was to us'.
She also said how impressed she was that the Lockerbie Ladies carried out all their efforts without ever publicising what they did.
'That's the remarkable thing about the Women of Lockerbie,' Suse said. 'Not only did they do what they did, but they didn't advertise it or put themselves into the limelight.'
Speaking about the Lockerbie Ladies to the Times[9] in 2018 (the 30th anniversary of the disaster) Kathryn Turman, the then-assistant director of this FBI division, talked about how former FBI director Robert Mueller was inspired to set up the Bureau's Victim Services Division.
Connor Swindells (best known for his role in Sex Education) stars in the upcoming BBC drama about the Lockerbie air disaster
Also on the cast is Patrick J Adams (best known for his role on Suits) and Merrit Weaver (who appeared in Severance among other productions)
She said: 'He was always struck by what he saw when he went to Lockerbie. He saw the ladies doing the cleaning and restoring of the personal effects.
That's something that stayed with him for many years.'
Describing how the Ladies' work had influenced the Bureau's approach, she said: 'It all goes back to the lessons learnt from Lockerbie and what the ladies and local police did to give these families some dignity. When you lose somebody, particularly in a violent death, these personal items take on such significance.'
According to the BBC, its new six-part series, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (which will also stream globally on Netflix), 'follows the untold story of the Scots-US investigation into the attack and the devastating effect it had on the small town and the families who lost loved ones'.
It adds: 'From the initial exhaustive search for evidence on the ground in Scotland, via the US and Malta to the trial at Camp Zeist in 2000, the series leads up to the upcoming new trial in the US.
The Lockerbie Bombing: The terror attack that killed 270 people
The Lockerbie bombing took place on December 21, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky. The New York-bound Boeing 747, named Maid of the Seas, was passing five miles above the Scottish town when the explosion tore it apart.
When first reports of a crash came through, many assumed it was a low-flying military training flight which had come to harm.
Flight 103 went down three minutes after 7pm, about half an hour after take-off from Heathrow, as it passed over the town heading out to the west.
The flight was running slightly late and should already have been out over the Atlantic en route to New York.
The cockpit section fell to earth at Tundergarth, about five miles out of town, landing in a field in rolling countryside within yards of a country church and graveyard.
The Lockerbie bombing took place on December 21, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky
A fuselage section came down on streets in Rosebank, on the northern edge of the town. Meanwhile, the fuel-laden wing section came down on the Sherwood area on the western edge of Lockerbie, adjoining the A74 road, now a motorway. As it came down it exploded in a fireball made worse by ruptured gas mains.
It was in this area, Sherwood Crescent, where 11 Lockerbie residents were killed.
No trace was ever found of some of the victims, who were vaporised in the fireball.
Lockerbie's Town Hall and its ice-rink were pressed into service as temporary mortuaries and within 24 hours of the disaster, a total of 1,000 police had been drafted in, along with 500 military helpers.
In the initial stages, 40 ambulances and 115 personnel attended at Lockerbie. They stood down shortly afterwards due to the minimal number of casualties, with all those involved in the tragedy either dead or having suffered minor injuries.
The bodies and wreckage had come down in two main flight corridors, one of which included the Kielder forest in Northumbria, the most densely-wooded part of the UK.
At the height the plane had been flying, winds were more than 100 knots. Some of the lighter pieces of wreckage were found miles away.
On the night of the crash, police made an immediate policy decision to treat the disaster as a criminal investigation.
Public confirmation of what had been suspected from the outset came on December 28, when investigators announced that traces of high explosive had been found and the plane had been brought down by a bomb.
A later fatal accident inquiry was to determine that the bomb was in a Toshiba radio-cassette player in a Samsonite suitcase which 'probably' joined the flight at Frankfurt in Germany.
Of the 259 passengers and crew - 150 men and 109 women - killed, 188 were Americans and 33 were British. The others came from 19 other countries including France, Germany, India, Sweden, Australia and Japan. The 11 people who were killed on the ground - four males and seven females - were all British.
Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the atrocity.
He was jailed for 27 years but died of prostate cancer aged 60 in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.
Advertisement'It also highlights the human impact on the investigators, the families and the Lockerbie community as it sought to rebuild and connect with bereaved families around the world.'
Interviews with Scottish police officers and representatives from United States investigative agencies (many of whom have never previously shared their stories) informed the project, according to the broadcaster.
In addition, producers and writers spoke to 'many of the families and loved ones of the victims'.
'Their stories revealed the impact the bombing had on their lives and the heroic activism that followed - resulting in lasting change to the way authorities approached security, safety and duty of care towards those involved in mass fatality incidents,' says the BBC.
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 will air in the UK from May 18.
New episodes premiere at 9pm every Sunday and Monday.
It will later stream internationally on Netflix.