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

"Gripping, shocking, forensic: a true legal thriller."
―Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

Combining the international intrigue of John le Carré with the courtroom drama of John Grisham, this real-life legal thriller asks how we can bring leaders of sovereign nations to account for their crimes.

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.