To the Editor:
Sen. Collins cares and has a legacy of fighting for the “forgotten American.” She has consistently demonstrated her support for justice for Mainers and those who support our country’s values. She has led the Senate effort to pass the Justice for the Living Victims of Lockerbie Act.
I am a proud Maine resident and a member of a group of 50 senior Pan Am pilots who lost our careers, pensions, healthcare and savings when the airline went bankrupt following Libya’s terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988.
Following the bombing, people stopped flying Pan Am, forcing its closure. We’d spent an average of 23 years with Pan Am following military service. Airline seniority rules and the then federal requirement that pilots retire at 60 kept us from finding jobs as pilots elsewhere—the only career for which we were trained. My family and others in our group lost everything they’d saved. Some families lost their homes. Children were pulled out of college. Our families were left without the security we had spent decades working to achieve. For years, we have been trying to recoup a fraction of our losses from funds paid by Libya to compen...