BBC Breakfast guest breaks down as fans struggle to watch 'difficult interview'

A BBC Breakfast guest broke down in tears during Tuesday's programme, as she discussed the heartbreaking impact of the Lockerbie tragedy on her family.

Ahead of a new documentary airing, which hears from the families and friends of some of the victims of the bombing, Her sister Olive was 25 years old when she bought a last-minute ticket on Pan Am 103, hoping to fly to New York for some Christmas shopping.

On 21 December 1988, a bomb exploded in the plane's cargo hold, causing the Boeing 747 to break up at 31,000ft, leaving all 259 passengers and crew on board killed, as well as 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane fell on their homes.

Olive's body was one of the first to be recovered, and her family has not spoken of how "hard" her death was to process.

Her sister Donna appeared on BBC Breakfast with Sally Nugent and Jon Kay, and spoke of her distress all these years later.

Donna recalled waving her sister off for the last time before her flight, and the "lively, vibrant and loud" woman she was.

"When she waved goodbye to me, I thought that was it, and I'd hear from her when she got back," Donna said.

She remembered being told to meet her sister at a meeting point, assuming Olive would have missed her flight or changed her mind about going.

"What might have been if timings had worked out differently,' Jon said.

Donna went on to share how "emotional" it was to return to Lockerbie, adding: "What was amazing about it as well was when we got there, the people of Lockerbie, the dedication they had put into helping strangers that they don't know... the love and the care they put into even putting up a room full of collages and memories, there's so much that happened behind the scenes."

Comforting her mum, Donna's daughter also spoke of the importance of the documentary for "remembering the victims, because obviously there's a lot of other stories that come through in other documentaries but this one was simply focusing on Olive and other victims of the tragedy".

She went on: "It's important that they're remembered because they were people, and they had stories and goals, and families who loved them."

After speaking of the tragedy and recalling when she'd been told where her sister's body had been found, Donna broke down in tears, with viewers calling it a "difficult" interview.

One said: "Why are they putting this poor woman through this? She's clearly not ready to talk about this..."

Another called it a "difficult interview", while someone else said it was "sad".

A third wrote: "37 years on and she still can't talk about it."

BBC Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.