The air traffic controller's voice faltered and his eyes filled with tears as he explained the feelings which overcame him as he watched the moving square representing the normal flight pattern of the jumbo jet congeal on his radar, become suspended, flicker momentarily and then disappear off his screen.
"We had never had any event like this before, nobody had ever seen anything like this happening before," explained the retired Scottish air traffic controller, Mr Alan John Topp (64), his voice trembling with emotion.
He was recalling with the help of radar recordings on TV screens what it felt like to be the first witness to the Lockerbie bombing outrage, one of the worst acts of aviation terrorism in history, on a December night in 1988.
His surreal experience was shared seconds later in the night sky far above the Scottish countryside by a British Airways pilot, Mr Robin Chamberlain, the opening of the Lockerbie bombing trial heard yesterday.
Flying a routine shuttle from Heathrow to Glasgow, the pilot glanced out of the cockpit window and found himself "looking down at something that looked like the burning oil fields you see in the Middle East."
Thirty seconds later, as he flew at 35,000 feet, the pilot heard an enormous explosion. "From the air looking down it looked like a petrol storage tank had blown up; it was just like things you see in films, this huge explosion down there."
The trial of two Libyan intelligence officers charged with the Lockerbie bombing nearly 12 years ago may last a year or longer and is expected to cost up to £100 million, which would make it the most expensive ever international court case.
Some 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people living in the Scottish town of Lockerbie, were killed when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky on December 21st, 1988, shortly after taking off from Heathrow Airport bound for New York.
Most of the victims were returning home from Europe for the Christmas holidays with their families in the US. The two Libyans - Mr Abdel Baset Al Megrahi, former head of security at Libyan-Arab airlines and Mr Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, said to have been the airline's manager in Malta - arrived in court in ceremonial clothing, long Jard robes and Shashiya hats, worn on important occasions in Libya.
Mr Al Megrahi called out in Arabic for Allah's help before taking his seat in the partitioned-off well of the court, beside his co-accused. They were seated behind two rows of defence lawyers.
Behind bullet-resistant glass screens extending from floor to ceiling sat members of the public, with the first few rows of seats reserved for the families of victims.
The court buildings and grounds were patrolled by Scottish policemen, many carrying sub-machine guns and with guard dogs. Journalists, relatives of victims and UN observers also arrived for the historic beginning of a trial which has already been described as extraordinary in legal terms.
Under a diplomatic arrangement which took years to broker, a little corner of the Netherlands has become Scottish territory for its duration.
Yesterday morning's session had to be adjourned for more than an hour after the sound system connection with the public gallery broke down.
The two former Libyan intelligence officers listened intently as the court clerk read out the indictments, accusing them of putting a bomb concealed in a radio-cassette recorder in a suitcase packed with clothing on board an Air Malta flight bound for Frankfurt.
The suitcase, with luggage tags showing JFK airport as its final destination, was then loaded on Pan Am flight 103 en route from London, which exploded over Scotland.
They are also accused of conspiring to blow up the jumbo jet over a period of several years, during which they allegedly travelled under false passports all over Europe, purchasing electronic timers capable of detonating explosive devices, high-performance plastic explosives, and other bomb-making material.
Significantly, the defence yesterday gave notice that its clients may give evidence which would incriminate persons, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.