On Eagles’ Wings

Exhibit – On Eagles’ Wings

Georgia Nucci was the mother of Chris Jones, a 20 year old victim of the Lockerbie Air Disaster– the terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103, which occurred in 1988. Pan Am flight 103 was a transatlantic flight from London to New York. On December 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 named “Clipper Maid of the Seas” exploded in the air; the remains landed in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Forensic experts later determined that 1lb of plastic explosives had detonated in the plane’s cargo hold. The death toll was 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 in Lockerbie. 41 of the victims were students. Many of the passengers were returning home for holiday celebrations. The youngest victim was 2 months old.  Since 189 of the victims were American, the event stood as the deadliest terrorist attack against the United States until the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

Georgia Nucci collected photos and information about the 270 victims of the Lockerbie Air Disaster and created On Eagles’ Wings in remembrance of them. Most of the information was gathered from the victims’ families, while some was gathered from newspapers. In the Editor’s note, Nucci explains why she chose to take on this task:

“When there is a mass murder, the victims are reduced to numbers: 270 dead, 270 anonymous dead. But when you look at each one of that number, give that number a name and a face and a story, you begin to say the number more slowly. As the letters and eulogies and news articles and photos came in I knew them all. Reading a eulogy for someone who I never met– never would meet now– tears streamed down my face and I resolved that these innocents would not be reduced to a statistic.”

A year prior to the disaster, Nucci’s only other child, a daughter named Jennifer, died of hepatitis while in Ecuador. Rather than being destroyed by the loss of her children, Nucci let the pain motivate and strengthen her. In addition to editing On Eagles’ Wings, Nucci successfully lobbied congress alongside other victims’ families to bolster aviation security. She and her husband are the adoptive parents of four siblings, and her appearances on “A Current Affair” have inspired several families to adopt sibling groups. At age 53, Nucci graduated cum laude from Albany law school. Through group bereavement sessions and through gathering information for On Eagles’ Wings, Nucci formed close bonds with other Pan Am families and they remain among her closest friends today.

<This information was provided to us from an uncited on-line source.>