Accused Lockerbie Bomb-Maker Charged: LI Mom Speaks On 'Horrific' Loss

MONTAUK, NY — Dec. 21 will mark 34 years since Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people in an act of hatred and terrorism that rocked the world.

Nearly three decades later, the U.S. Department of Justice said Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi (Mas’ud), 71, of Tunisia and Libya — the man accused of making the bomb — made his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on federal charges.

The Dec. 21, 1988, civilian aircraft bombing killed 190 Americans, 43 citizens of the United Kingdom, including 11 people on the ground, and people from 20 other countries.

Thirty-five Syracuse University students who were returning home to the United States for the holidays after a semester studying abroad were among the dead.

One of those Syracuse students was Alexander Lowenstein, 21, who lived in New Jersey but loved his family's home in Montauk.

Speaking with Patch on Thursday, Suse Lowenstein, Alex's mother, said despite the years that have passed, the pain is just a heartbeat away.

"It's so horrific that I don't wish it on anyone — and the circumstances were so horrible," Lowenstein said.

The news came as the dark anniversary looms.

"This is a difficult time, anyway, so horrible, with Christmas," she said.

Lowenstein said she wanted to congratulate the DOJ for "having persevered all these years."

"The fact that we have him in the United States is absolutely remarkable," she said.

The two who were indicted in the past were not expedited to the United States, she said. She referenced the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi in 2009 — according to Time, he was freed by the Scottish government on "compassionate grounds" because he had cancer; but others speculated, Time said, that his release may have been a trade for a British oil deal.

"It was just despicable," Lowenstein said, of al-Megrahi's release. "He wasn't especially compassionate with the 270 civilians he murdered. It was a slap in the face."

However, with charges faced by Al-Marimi, Lowenstein said, "I'm very grateful that we have our Department of Justice." While there is never closure, she said, the arrest brings some measure of justice. "It just seems to be right," she said.

Remembering her beloved son, Lowenstein's voice lights with love.

"He was sunshine," she said. "His demeanor, his character, I can only describe it as sunny."

An avid surfer, Alex loved Ditch Plains in Montauk ; he had a circle of friends he surfed with.

"He was a terrific friend to others, a confidante, always helpful," she said. "If someone banged themselves on a board and was bleeding, he was the one who would drive them to the hospital."

Sharing stories of her son, Lowenstein said his legacy lives on.

"He made an impact on so many people. Even now, to this day, 34 years later, I still get people reaching out to me, to tell me things about him. It's incredible, it really is," she said.

While the family lived full-time in New Jersey, Alex, "if you asked him where his home was, would say Montauk," Lowenstein said; their second home was his haven.

Reflecting on Dec. 21, 1988, Lowenstein said: "It was, appropriately, the darkest day of the year. It was rainy and miserable."

An artist, she was working in the studio on a figure for which her son Alex had posed.

"A friend of his called to see if Alexander was home yet. She spoke in a funny way. She said, 'What airline is he flying?' I said Pan Am. She screamed and asked what number flight? When I said 103, she just broke down. She yelled, 'Haven't you heard? It was last seen in a fireball over Lockerbie, Scotland.'"

Lowenstein's voice grew quiet in memory.

"I knew immediately that Alexander was dead," she said. "It was a horrific day."

She tried finding her husband, Peter — Peter Lowenstein died in 2018 — who had gone to the bank.

"He had great hopes that he had missed the plane," she said. "But I knew. Alexander wasn't the kind of person that missed a plane. It was just horrible."

Her second son Lucas was also a Syracuse student.

"We had a friend drive him home. He was deeply affected by his brother's death," she said.

When asked how she navigated the heavy weight of grief after unthinkable loss, Lowenstein said it was her work that kept her sane in the midst of howling despair.

"You really don't want to go on," she said. "All these innocent victims died because of hate. And it wasn't even directed at them, it was at some other people. They had nothing to do with it; it was random. Their average age was 26 years old."

Her boy, she said, had "hardly lived."

Alexander had hoped to become a psychologist, she said. "He was so very good with other kids, with other people. He had a gift."

In the days moving forward, Lowenstein created a work, "Dark Elegy," comprised of 76 sculptures depicting those whose lives were ripped part by the agony of grief.

The 76, she said, "are just a small portion of the 270" who died. "When you see it, you think, 'Can you imagine this, times three?'"

Families who lost loved ones on the doomed flight make the pilgrimage to Montauk to see the sculptures.

"They love it," Lowenstein said. "You raise a child and you love a child and their life is taken by someone else’s hate — and your fear is that they’re forgotten. This is one way people felt they would not be forgotten and that they would be remembered."

The garden of sculptures is open every day from 10 a.m. to noon in Montauk, at 11 East Lake Drive.

Lowenstein finds comfort in the fact that although her son's life was short, it was rich with love. "He was happy," she said. "He was just a sunny person who went about his way and did what he enjoyed doing."

She's grateful, too, for the precious and special relationship she and her husband and surviving son shared with Alex.

Her son Lucas, she said, has given her three beautiful grandchildren. The youngest is named after his Uncle Alex. "Young Alex," she said. "That's beautiful."

Every year on December 21, she and her family gather to share a positive day. "We go to an uplifting show on Broadway, have a good meal together — and we reflect on Alex, whom the children have never met. We don't go to the cemetery on that day — it's sad enough. We choose happy times."

If she could speak to her beloved son today, after the news of the arrest, Lowenstein said: "I would tell him that we are still trying to get justice for what was done — and we seem to be well on our way."

At least 12 Long Islanders died in the bombing.

On Dec. 21, 2020, the Department of Justice made public a criminal complaint charging Mas’ud with destruction of aircraft resulting in death, and destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce by means of an explosive resulting in death. On Nov. 29, 2022, a federal grand jury formally indicted Mas’ud on the same charges contained in the criminal complaint. .

If convicted, Mas’ud faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.