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In 1988, Regina Trach Gallary, then a SUNY Oswego student, had her ticket booked for Pan-Am Flight 103. A change of mind only a few days prior saved her life.

She originally planned to join fellow Oswego students Colleen Brunner and Lynne Hartunian on their European backpacking trip at the end of their semester abroad in London. But, realizing she wouldn’t have enough money to enjoy the trip, Gallary rescheduled her flight to December 18 — just days before the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on December 21, 1988.

Both Brunner and Hartunian were among the 270 people killed in the terrorist bombing, including 35 Syracuse University students and 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, where the plane crashed.

“Their zest for life was contagious. They were so much fun to be around,” Gallary said. “You always just wanted to do whatever they were doing.”

Brunner and Hartunian both majored in communication studies at Oswego. Brunner, the youngest of eight children, was originally from North Boston, New York. Hartunian, born in Troy, was returning home to Niskayuna, New York to become a godmother to her nephew.

Brunner attended Hamburg Senior High School, where she served as secretary and vice president of the student council and was a member of the varsity cheerleading squad. At Oswego, she worked in the admissions office and belonged to the Alpha Sigma Chi sorority. Her mother previously described her as having a “special gift of inner love.”

Hartunian graduated from Niskayuna High School in 1985 and went to the Barbizon School of Modeling in Albany, New York. During summer breaks, she worked at her dad’s supermarket and loved to play piano. She aspired to go into television communications or advertising.

She graduated from Oswego cum laude posthumously. After the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, her high school started a scholarship awarded each year in her name.

After finishing their classes in London, Brunner and Hartunian spent several weeks backpacking through Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Their friends and roommates, Janette Hausler and Kristin Usaitis, joined them on the trip. Hausler and Usaitis were also members of Brunner’s sorority.

Hausler and Usaitis had planned to spend Christmas in Europe, but Brunner and Hartunian, both family-oriented, wanted to be with their loved ones for the holiday, Hausler said. In the end, Hausler and Usaitis decided to return home for Christmas and booked their flights for Dec. 23.

As the pair took a train from Germany back to London on Dec. 22, they noticed passengers unfolding their newspapers. The headlines immediately caught their attention. All of them were about Pan Am Flight 103.

When the pair reached London, they got a newspaper and saw Brunner and Hartunian among the names of victims, Hausler said.

“We called our parents to say, ‘Do you know anything about this?’ They were like, ‘Yeah, we do.’ We didn’t know for a whole day,” Hausler said. “That’s sort of the trauma of it.”

This year marks the 36th anniversary of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. SU is holding its annual Remembrance Week this week to honor the lives lost.

Oswego’s campus features several memorials that serve as commemoration spaces for Brunner and Hartunian, including the “Free and Easy Forever” memorial, which also honors two victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Other memorials include a plaque from the class of 1989 and a dedicated commemoration space in Oswego’s Penfield Library.

Courtesy of the Oswego Alumni Association

Janette Hausler and Kristin Usaitis, Brunner and Hartunian’s friends and roommates, said they didn’t learn about the bombing until a day later. Hausler said they were on a train to London when they noticed newspaper headlines about the flight.

The university has also established a memorial scholarship fund in honor of Brunner, according to its memorial page.

Usaitis said she attends the annual memorial service for the Pan Am Flight 103 victims at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. While she said she enjoys going each year and walking through the cemetery, she notices a lack of recognition for Oswego and its students among the other activities that honor victims.

Brunner and Hartunian’s friends consistently described them as “lively,” “fun-loving” and “positive people.” Gallary said that she never saw them upset over anything.

Dresden Engle, another friend of Hartunian, said she met her in theater classes and remembers thinking she was a beautiful ballet dancer. Engle recalled how Hartunian taught her how to balance properly while dancing, and in return, Engle helped her with her singing skills.

Engle described Hartunian as “happy, dramatic, effervescent, ambitious and a dreamer.” Throughout Hartunian’s time abroad in London, the two sent each other letters.

Engle recalls one particular letter, the last she ever sent to Hartunian, in which she expressed her disappointment over not getting a role in a play.

“You can’t let this stuff get you down,” Hartunian wrote back. “Life’s too short.”

Hartunian wrote that just weeks before she died on the flight, Engle said.

Brunner and Hartunian were both actively involved in their churches, Gallary and Engle said. Gallary said Brunner served as a lector and had a close relationship with the campus Catholic ministry’s priest. Engle recalled attending church every Sunday with Hartunian, who often joined her in song during mass as Engle sang in the choir.

Oswego’s Hall Newman Center held a memorial service mass celebrating Brunner and Hartunian on January 28, 1989.

“They sort of gravitated towards each other, but they weren’t exclusive. They didn’t exclude anybody,” Gallary said. “Everybody was included in everything that they did, and they always saw the good in everybody.”

Hausler recalled a running joke the group shared a dime Hartunian had brought from the U.S., which kept randomly reappearing in Europe. Over the years, she and Usaitis would find dimes during significant moments, like at their memorial service or graduation.

One weekend in Scotland, both girls shopped for holiday gifts for their families. Gallary said that Hartunian buying a Claddagh ring for a friend, a wool sweater for her newborn nephew and a purse for her sister.

Amid the wreckage of Hartunian’s luggage that fell on Lockerbie, an intact bottle of French wine she intended to give to her parents was recovered.

“They’re almost angelic, in a way, they were taken at the prime of their life. They had so much ahead of them. They touched so many people. And you just never know when your time is up,” Gallary said. “The fact that they were together was remarkable too, because they were pretty close.”

Published on October 24, 2024 at 12:48 am

Contact Madeline: mmgoodhe@syr.edu