The Forgotten Flight ─ Terrorism, Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Justice

On September 19, 1989, 170 people were killed when UTA Flight 772 was destroyed by a suitcase bomb planted by Libyan agents. Despite being one of the deadliest terror attacks in history, outside France it remained overshadowed by the Lockerbie bombing that had taken place ten months earlier. Both attacks were carried out at the instruction of Libya’s dictator Muammer Qaddafi, but while ?Lockerbie’ became synonymous with international terrorism, UTA 772 became the ?forgotten flight’.

As a lawyer, Stuart H. Newberger represented the families of the seven Americans killed in the UTA 772 attack. Now he tells the story of the ?forgotten flight’ for the first time. Newberger pieces together the events leading up to the crime in extraordinary detail, reveals how French investigators cracked the case and takes us inside the behind-the-scenes diplomatic talks with the Libyan government. A real-life legal thriller and a deep examination of the attacks that shaped our view of modern terrorism, The Forgotten Flight is a fast-paced drama with important implications for how we achieve justice for international crimes in an increasingly globalized world.

Stuart H. Newberger is a senior partner at international law firm Crowell & Moring. As well as cases involving private commercial activities, he also handles cases surrounding public policy issues such as state-sponsorship of terrorism, violations of international law, international crimes and human rights. His legal work has received coverage from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, CNN, BBC, CBS, NBC, ABC and other international media outlets, as well as national legal periodicals such as The American Lawyer, National Law Journal, ABA Journal, and The Washington Lawyer. This is his first book. He lives in McLean, Virginia.