Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Bombing of Pan Am 103,’ a plane explodes at 30,000ft in the sky and comes crashing down on the town of Lockerbie in Scotland. 259 people on board are killed, and the debris causes such devastation that 11 more people lose their lives. The show follows the investigation into this shocking tragedy, but at the same time, it also turns the lens towards the community of Lockerbie. We see people standing in solidarity with the victims and supporting law enforcement in their investigation. The story also focuses on the tragic loss of the Flannigan family, leaving Steven and his brother as the only survivors. However, the show doesn’t reveal the tragedies that further plagued them.
Steven Flannigan Tragically Lost His Entire Family
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in Lockerbie. Fire and debris rained on Sherwood Crescent, the street where 14-year-old Steven Flannigan lived with his parents, Tom (44) and Kathleen (41), and his sister, Joanne (10). His brother, David (19), was away in Blackpool with his friends and was due to return home a couple of days later. Steven had left the house to go across the street to his neighbor to have his sister’s present, a bicycle, fixed before Christmas. While they were in the garage, Steven heard a noise and a bang and saw a flash and smoke engulf their street with no sign left of his house. The plane had crashed into his home and completely demolished it.
The impact was so bad that his sister’s remains were found in the 30-foot crater left behind by the plane. His parents’ remains, on the other hand, were never found. Termed “Orphan of Lockerbie,” Steven was taken in by the Lockerbie community. He eventually moved into a foster home in the town. In the Netflix series, Ed McCusker stays in touch with him. In real life, an officer named Alex Smith had been the one who kept tabs on him and made sure he was doing well. The investigation dragged on for years, and eventually, the Libyan government accepted responsibility for the tragedy that wrecked Lockerbie and the country. A payout of about $3 billion was announced for the victims’ families.
Of this £2.1 million were received by the Flannigan brothers. Steven saw it as a chance to rebuild his life. He decided to invest the money to secure his future. David, on the other hand, called it dirty money. Unlike his brother, he decided to spend it as quickly as possible, which led him down a dark and tragic path of drugs and alcohol. On December 29, 1993, he passed away at the age of 24 due to heart failure in a hostel in Thailand. Losing his only remaining family member was the lowest point of Steven’s life. Reportedly, a few months later, the 19-year-old allegedly had an affair with his foster mother, which ended when his foster father found out about it. At this point, Steven left Lockerbie for Florida to train as a jumbo jet pilot.
Steven Flannigan is Believed to be the Last Victim of the Pan Am 103 Tragedy
In 1996, Steven returned to Glasgow with John Boyce, 15 years his senior. His friend had a positive influence on him, leading Steven to turn his life around. He found love with a woman named Lisa Gregory during his visit to Lockerbie. Soon, she was pregnant, and Steven moved back to his hometown to be with her. Their son, Luke, was born in 1997, but they had already broken up. At this point, Steven moved to Bradford on Avon with Boyce and his wife. In 1999, when the couple started a guesthouse, Steven joined the business as their partner. On August 17, 2000, having just returned from his son’s third birthday party, he took some guesthouse visitors around town and to the local pub.
Later in the night, he made his way back to the cottage, reportedly taking an unsigned route. Being a local, he knew the way that went across the railway line of Westbury-Trowbridge. Somewhere along the way, due to some unexplainable circumstances, he fell on the train track. Around 3 am, a slow-moving maintenance train came on the track. While its two drivers saw Steven lying seemingly unconscious on the tracks. They tried to stop, but they had seen him too late, and despite its slow speed, the train hit him, resulting in considerable head injuries. He was taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, but never regained consciousness. He passed away two days later, on August 20, 2000, at 26, and was laid to rest at Dryfesdale Cemetery in Lockerbie next to his brother and sister.
Initially, the British transport police suspected suicide. However, people close to him revealed that he had been doing very well. He had recently picked up golf and was due to meet his friend the next day for a game. He was also a doting father and loved his son, whom he wouldn’t have thought of abandoning. Still, the true nature of the circumstances behind his death remains somewhat mysterious. Meanwhile, the compensation he had saved was passed on to his son in a trust fund, which was released to him in 2018 when he turned 21. Its value was estimated to be around £18 million at the time. However, Luke, who was last known to be living on a remote sheep farm in Lockerbie, stated that what he really wanted was to be reunited with his father.
Read More: DCS John Orr: How did the Pan AM 103 Investigator Die?
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