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Lockerbie bench around a tree

TW9, Kew Gardens

We have numbered these 17 plaques, anti-clockwise, starting from the plaque for the whole crew which faces the water. Oddly, the last two are out of alphabetic sequence.

A nearby information board: "Although we don't know exactly when this oak was planted, we can estimate from its size that it has stood here for around 300 years, making it older than the nearby lake and landscaped vistas. Its sturdiness over centuries is one of the reasons it was chosen to honour the 16 members of aircrew who lost their lives on the Pan American World Airways flight 103. The flight departed from nearby Heathrow in December 1988 and tragically exploded over Lockerbie before it could reach its destination."

While reading this, one hears the planes, almost one every two minutes, coming in to land at Heathrow, only 7 miles away.

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