On this day, Feb. 2, the 1989 edition of The Oswegonian was headlined by tributes, stories and editorials surrounding the untimely deaths of Colleen R. Brunner and Lynne C. Hartunian, both SUNY Oswego students who were the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Scotland. The students were overseas as part of Oswego’s London Semester Program when their flight crashed in what is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom. 

Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Detroit, Michigan with layovers in London and New York City. The flight held 35 passengers from Syracuse University who were also in study abroad programs. While flying over the town of Lockerbie in Scotland, an on-board bomb was detonated, destroying the plane midair and killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members, as well as 11 ground fatalities in the town of Lockerbie. Two Libyan nationals claimed responsibility for the bombing attack and were later tried in the United States.

Several hundred family members, friends, faculty and others gathered at the Hall Newman Center on New Street for a memorial service, speaking of how both victims embraced life and warned of life’s fragile nature.

According to Oswego’s Penfield Library, Brunner, at the time, was “a junior majoring in communication studies… traveling home following completion of her college’s London exchange program.”

“Her love for life, family, and friends was overwhelming,” according to Penfield Library’s online memorial. “She had a special gift of inner love, which projected in her warm, beautiful smile to everyone she came in contact with.”

Hartunian, a senior communication studies major and Brunner’s friend, was also returning from the same London exchange program aboard Pan Am flight.

“Talented and beautiful, open and generous, a good listener and friend, loving and playful daughter and sister; Lynne’s presence, whether among friends or a family gathering, enlivened any event with her effervescence,” the memorial states. 

Articles titled “Pan Am Flight Victims Remembered,” “Young People are not Supposed to Die” and “Feeling the Loss of Two Fellow Students” are featured in the newspaper by students, writers and the Editor-in-Chief. The students’ names are also included on the Peace Free and Easy memorial on the West Campus campus adjacent to Seneca Hall. Penfield Library’s online memorial is accessible through the following link: https://libraryguides.oswego.edu/c.php?g=1165116&p=8505653.

Photo via: SUNY Oswego