I just finished bing watching the EXCELLENT Netflix miniseries/docudrama: “The Bombing of Pan Am 103.”

It portrays the complexities of the human, investigative, political, and legal issues of dealing with a STATE SPONSORED TERRORIST ATTACK that resulted in the MURDER of almost 300 innocent VICTIMS. I can’t recommend this highly enough. The production values are outstanding. Well researched, detailed, and compelling writing. The direction is crisp and the great actors are believable.

This isn’t an easy watch, as it realistically shows the competing interests of survivors trying to get information and justice for their lost loved ones, running into a maze of competing interests between a multitude of different law enforcement agencies, intelligence services, legal entities, business (Pan Am included), and heads of state. It’s frustrating to see how little justice was meted out, but if you (like me) didn’t get into the details of the story, this is enlightening. It’s well told here and holds the viewers interest without getting too much into the weeds.


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1...94/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Is it documentary-style or dramatized?

I find most documentaries distracting.

Like Chernobyl, Challenger, Columbia, amd Tererife, PA103 has always had a level of fascination to me.

This is on my watchlist once I finish Breaking Bad [for the 3rd time]

Will have to watch this, remember it so vividly, I was stationed in Germany when this happened and knew several people that were flying back when this happened. They were on Pan Am 105 which was the next flight behind this one. Back then it was awhile before we found out they were okay.

I was stationed at Griffiss AFB at the time, less than an hour from Syracuse. 35 SU students were on board. It hit hard locally (there).

One of the victims on the plane grew up right down the street from my wife and was a few years ahead of us in school. I will check it out as this terrorist attack was very real to our little community. She was one of the Syracuse students murdered on this flight.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Is it documentary-style or dramatized?

I find most documentaries distracting.

It's a docuDRAMA (dramatized) but VERY well done! Of course the story has been simplified to some degree with a number of character's stories combined and timelines somewhat simplified to make it easier to follow, but I believe it's very informative as well as entertaining (and if it wasn't, it wouldn't be available for viewing). When you have literally hundreds of people involved in a tragedy of this size, it's understandably complex. The producers did (IMHO) a great job of filtering the details that were essential to show from others that were important, but would have overloaded most of the potential viewers and lost them before the conclusion of the story. I found that the episodes moved very quickly and were engrossing.

The subject matter is well presented and as a former homicide investigator myself, I recognized the portrayal of this case as portraying the issues (I'm familiar with) on cases like this in a very accurate, fair, and believable manner.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I was stationed at Griffiss AFB at the time, less than an hour from Syracuse. 35 SU students were on board. It hit hard locally (there).

quote:

Originally posted by dking271:
One of the victims on the plane grew up right down the street from my wife and was a few years ahead of us in school. I will check it out as this terrorist attack was very real to our little community. She was one of the Syracuse students murdered on this flight.

Gustofer/dking271: I'm looking forward to seeing your impressions, if you watch the series and would like to post them. I think you'll see it portrays the victims and their families' trauma well, including that experienced by the Muslim family that lost their son and was unfairly exposed by the press as having some responsibility for the bombing, when (through proper investigation) it became quite clear he was NOT. It reminded me of the Richard Jewel debacle, but the FBI agents do appear to have handled this case in a much more responsible manner and should be credited for this.

@ Pulicords...Thanks, I'll check it out.

I'm two episodes in, and you're right...VERY well done and watchable.

Thanks!

Vince Flynn’s fictional character Mitch Rapp decided to kill bad guys - mostly Muslims - after his girlfriend (an SU student) died on flight 103.

the Mrs. and I are really enjoying it, three episodes in.

I was also stationed in GE at the time and went home on leave within a day or two of the crash for Christmas. Frankfurt airport had Polizei everywhere with auto rifles

Thank you pulicords for the recommendation!

I just finished watching the series last night.

It was excellent.

It never ceases to amaze me how bad the lack of intelligence sharing is in three letter agencies. It's no wonder terrorism was able to strike again in September 2001.

I started it last night and watched two episodes. Agree with all of you. Very good and look forward to more.

Finished the series last night. I never knew the outcome of the trial and was not very happy about it.

It was a very well done series.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Finished the series last night. I never knew the outcome of the trial and was not very happy about it.

It was a very well done series.

Agreed on all points. Why is it that politics and justice never mix?

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

I’ve always detested those that kill totally innocent people for absolutely no reason. It’s another thing if an ‘act of God’ were to take one’s life, disaster, accident, whatever.

I’ll put it on my list.