Latest news with #LockerbieDisaster
BBC News
09-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
'You just do it because it helps people'
Most people celebrating their 80th birthday do not run the risk of being called away to a work emergency - but that will be a possibility for Gari Finch. The soon-to-be octogenarian from Great Ayton, in North Yorkshire, has been a volunteer at Cleveland Mountain Rescue for 54 years, and so far he has at least 1,500 call-outs to his Mr Finch's teammates know better than to suggest that after this latest milestone, he should hang up his distinctive red uniform and enjoy says he will continue in the volunteer role he has done since the early 1970s "as long as I'm still of some use"."I'm still in my 20s in my brain - it's the rest of my body that's not there," he says. Cleveland Mountain Rescue was established in 1965, and is run entirely by a group of about 70 volunteers, with no paid members of staff. A keen climber and walker, Mr Finch says he was inspired to join in 1971 to "put a little bit back into society"."I thought, if I fall off a crag or have an accident, I would like someone to come and help me," he told Naga Munchetty on BBC 5 Live."So, consequently, when the opportunity came, I joined up."Alongside his full-time teaching job, he was a search and rescue officer for over 25 years, responding to accidents and incidents across the North York Moors, the coastline between Sandsend and Hartlepool, and the Tees Finch was even part of the team sent to Scotland to help recover debris from the Lockerbie disaster in 1988, the UK's deadliest terror atrocity, when a bomb in the hold of a Pan Am flight to America exploded above the town. In 2013, Mr Finch received an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his dedication to mountain rescue services - although, according to him, it was "a team effort". Mr Finch says his late wife, Sandy, also played a vital role in the operation of Cleveland Mountain Rescue, "taking up the reins" and speaking to emergency services in his absence if an urgent call came died nearly six years ago, and Mr Finch credits the friendships he has formed at the mountain rescue organisation for helping him through that difficult period."Apart from helping people, the camaraderie and banter and friends I've made over the years is brilliant," he explains."That's what's keeping me going, to be perfectly honest." Cleveland Mountain Rescue has also reached a significant anniversary this year - 60 years in operation, making Mr Finch its longest-standing Greive, public relations officer at Cleveland Mountain Rescue, says: "Gari joined the team in 1971, and 54 years later he is still an active member. "He epitomises what volunteering is about: giving up his time, using his skills to help others."To this day, Mr Finch still plays an active role in the team as a radio operator, helping to coordinate search and rescue efforts, as well as using his skills to train others."I think I'm still of some use," Mr Finch says."I'm still on the call-out list, so when there's a call-out, off I go to the base to prepare the Land Rovers and the radios."You don't do it for money or anything, you just do it because it's there to be done. It's something useful and it helps people." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
02-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lockerbie: Remembering the victims of Flight 103
Almost 40 years on, it seems surprising there are still new stories to tell about the Lockerbie destruction of Pan Am 103 in the skies above the small Dumfries and Galloway town on 21 December 1988 is one of the most chronicled events in recent British history.A bomb exploded in the plane's cargo hold, causing the Boeing 747 to break up at 31,000ft as it flew from Heathrow to New 259 passengers and crew on board were killed, along with 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane fell on their homes. It remains the biggest terror attack to have taken place on British tends to focus on anniversaries, but the past six months have brought two big-budget television dramas and later this year a play about the town's response to the disaster will debut at Glasgow's Citizens a BBC Scotland documentary aims to tell some of the less well-known stories about those who died on the flight, and about those they left behind. Among the victims on the plane was Tim Burman, a 24-year-old banker who was flying to New York to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, Rose was the youngest of four and the only boy. His three sisters - Rachel, Tanya and Fiona - remember him as an "arty, sporty" brother who was keen on the environment and loved running in the Scottish says: "He genuinely was easy-going and fun, really good fun".Rose, who Tim met while he was on a gap year in Australia, says: "I enjoyed his sense of humour, his style, sense of adventure, ability to get on with everyone. They all mourn his lost potential. His sister Tanya says: "He's both the brother we had, but also a victim of Pan Am 103."Rose believes Tim and his death created a huge bond between them all."Tim is everywhere in the conversation and the mannerisms of Rachel, Tanya and Fiona," she says. "Our connection is held together by him still." Olive Gordon was 25 and a hairdresser from Birmingham. She had bought a last-minute ticket on Pan Am 103 and was planning on enjoying some shopping in New York in the run up to Christmas."She was just yapping. She said 'I'm going to America tomorrow. Going to buy stuff'. She loved shopping," her sister Donna describes Olive as "very bubbly, very full on. You just would not forget her if you knew her".Olive was one of nine siblings. "I have always asked 'why her? why my sister?'" her brother Colyn says. "And it's something that you sort of battle with. And I'm still battling with it, a little bit. Well, not a little bit, a lot."Her family believe she would have been in business now, something involving hair and beauty."She would probably be an influencer right now," Donna says. William MacAllister, known as Billy, was a 26-year-old professional golfer from Mull. He was heading to the USA for a romantic break with his girlfriend friends say Terri was hoping Billy was about to golf pro Stewart Smith worked with Billy at a course in London and remembers his friend as a natural comic with a zest for life."He was a very funny guy. Great sense of humour, great sense of fun," he says."He had moved to Richmond Park, so I went across and worked with Billy. Imagine living in London in the mid-80s when you're mid-20s, both of you."We had some great times."Back in Mull, family friends have put a memorial bench on the course at Tobermory, where they say Billy played every day after school and every weekend from the age of 12. They remember him as "some guy".Family friend Olive Brown says: "Every December I do have a wee sad moment, thinking he's not here. All that potential, enthusiasm and ability got caught short." Colyn and other members of Olive Gordon's family visited Lockerbie in the days after the disaster. It was a shocking scene."I remember the crater, this huge hole, and these little bits all over the place. It just had this smell. My God, my sister was found here. Somewhere here," he says. In the weeks that followed, members of the local community came together to wash, press and package up the belongings of those who had died on the plane. The Lockerbie laundry has become a symbol of the kindness shown by the people of the town. They treated the dead and their families with love and care while coping with their own immeasurable says: "Just thinking about it now makes me emotional. Because these people, they don't know you, they've never met you. But the way they treated you is as if they were family."The people of Lockerbie showed how humanity works. How to display compassion, to display love. I'll never forget them."I don't know if it's quite macabre to say this but I've always said I am glad that's the place that my sister's life was ended. Because of the type of people that live in this place." The events of the night of 21 December 1988 have resonated across the 2001, a Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted of the bombing and 270 counts of murder, following a trial in front of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not from terminal prostate cancer, Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds in 2009. He was returned to Libya and spent the next three years living in a villa in Tripoli before finally succumbing to his illness in 2012. Ten years later, Libyan Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was taken into American custody after being removed from his home in is awaiting trial in the USA, accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103. Today, the town of Lockerbie remembers the disaster in its own, quiet, from the secondary school can apply for a scholarship to spend a year at Syracuse University, in memory of 35 students from there who died in the is a memorial garden on the edge of the town, as well as plaques in Sherwood Crescent and Park Place, the two sites where most of the plane came Tundergarth Church, which overlooks the field where the nose cone was found, is also a site of more than anything, the Lockerbie bombing victims are remembered by those they left year in Tobermory, members at the golf club play for the cup which carries Billy MacAllister's his friend Stewart has a special reason to remember him."He had a big impact on my life really because, had Billy not enticed me to go and work over at Richmond, I would probably have not got to know my then girlfriend, who became my wife. My life would have been a very different one from what it became," he says."What a shame he didn't get a chance to go on and fulfil his potential."For Rose, Tim's early death has shaped the course of the past four decades for all those who loved him."I think the gift that Tim's given us is to live our lives. I always feel that I owe that to him. Get out and do it."Olive's death has had the same effect on Colyn and their siblings."Olive would have wanted us to live a good life, a full life. Like how she lived. Having a good time."Lockerbie: Our Story will be available on the BBC iPlayer from 22:00 on Monday 2 June and will be shown on BBC Two at 21:00 and BBC Scotland at 22:00 on Tuesday 3 June.
