A filmmaker’s quest to ID men behind Lockerbie bombing

Ken Dornstein poses for a photo Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, in Boston. A long investigation by Dornstein, a documentary filmmaker whose brother died in the attack, identified Libyan Abu Agila Mas'ud as the possible maker of the bomb that shattered the New York-bound Boeing 747 as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988. Mas'ud has not been named by U.S. or Scottish officials as a suspect. All 259 people aboard the plane and 11 on the ground were killed. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Ken Dornstein poses for a photo Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, in Boston. A long investigation by Dornstein, a documentary filmmaker whose brother died in the attack, identified Libyan Abu Agila Mas'ud as the possible maker of the bomb that shattered the New York-bound Boeing 747 as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988. Mas'ud has not been named by U.S. or Scottish officials as a suspect. All 259 people aboard the plane and 11 on the ground were killed. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

By Associated Press October 16, 2015 4 min read

BOSTON (AP) – Ken Dornstein was 19 years old and home for the holidays when he and his family received word that his 25-year-old brother, an aspiring writer living abroad, was one of 270 people killed when the New York-bound Boeing 747 he was flying on crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland.

Over the years Dornstein, who went on to become a documentary filmmaker, turned to his sleuthing skills to shake out critical details of one of the worst terrorist attacks against American citizens. He spent years trying to identify the man he believes made the bomb that took down Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988.

“When you lose someone you love, you don’t forget,” Dornstein told The Associated Press.

On Thursday, U.S. and Scottish investigators said they had identified two new Libyan suspects in the bombing and want to interview them in Tripoli.

For Dornstein, 46, it’s been a nearly lifelong quest that began the day his brother David died, sending him on a Byzantine chase that included searching files kept by the FBI, the former East German police and ultimately to a jail in Libya.