« Back to News

Stranraer Couple Caught Up in Terrorist Mayhem

A Stranraer couple were caught up in the mayhem of the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport on Saturday.

Travel consultant Carol Scobie was trapped on an incoming flight for around nine hours while husband Sam, waiting for her in the main terminal building, was just yards away when the four-wheel Cherokee Jeep used in the attack burst into flames.

Sam told the Free Press this week: “There was a crowd of youngsters in the arrivals lounge when one came running in shouting ‘It’s a bomb; it’s a bomb’.”

He added: “I thought he was carrying on, but the next thing I heard was the airport tannoy saying there was a fire in another part of the building and could we evacuate.”

Sam went outside the building where he could see black smoke billowing up.

“Being nosy, I went towards it. It was a jeep on fire. Then it exploded and the flames shot out of the back window. I thought it was time I was not there and I had better get away.”

As the rain was pouring down, he joined others in the shelters in the middle of the road complex where he watched the drama unfold.

“The police were very quick off the mark with police cars and vans and there were probably eight fire engines and they were joined by airport fire engines,” he recalled.

Later, he and others ended up in an hotel at the airport.

“I was quite stunned by it all”, he said. “It is an experience I will not forget for a while. You are just sitting there waiting for someone and your mind is drifting anywhere and then something like that happens.”

Sam had gone to the airport to collect his travel consultant wife Carol who was flying back from a week cruising in the Mediterranean on the luxurious Voyager of the Seas.

As part of her job with Stewart Travel, Carol planned to use the cruise to tell customers of the experience.