Sanya Popovic

File:Sanya Popovic.jpg

Sanya Popovic, former fiancée of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Bernt Carlsson

Sanya Popovic (born 1963) is the former fiancée of Bernt Carlsson, the highest profile victim of the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988.

On 12 August 1995, Sanya Popovic, a daughter of Dr Tatyana Popovic and Professor Nenad Popovic of New York, was married to George Vladimir Bogdanich, a son of Helen Bogdanich of Naples, Florida, and the late Walter Bogdanich. The Rev. Rudy Aguilla, a nondenominational minister, officiated at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ms Popovic is keeping her name. She is a professor of political science at Barnard College in New York. She graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She also received a master's degree in political science from Columbia University, where she is a candidate for a PhD in that subject. Her father is professor emeritus of international political economy at Syracuse. He was the minister plenipotentiary in the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1956 to 1961. Her mother is the author of "Prince Marko: Hero of the South Slavs."

George Bogdanich is a documentary film maker, a writer and a political consultant, based in Chicago. He is the producer and director of the film "Who Killed Yugoslavia? And Other Stories the Media Missed."

Interviewed by Jan-Olof Bengtsson

In his iDAG newspaper article of 13 March 1990, Jan-Olof Bengtsson reported:

"Kassaskåpet var tomt - The safe was empty"

Who broke the seal to Bernt Carlsson's apartment?

When Bernt Carlsson's safe was opened six days after the Pan Am explosion, those present had a minor shock: the safe was empty! Despite the fact that the office had been sealed already on 21 December 1988, and his private apartment the day after, by the UN's own security staff. The opening was witnessed by, among others, Bernt Carlsson's girl friend Sanya Popovic, his sister Inger Carlsson-Musser and Embassy Counsellor Stefan Noréen of the Swedish Delegation at the UN. In the days immediately before Bernt Carlsson made the trip to his secret meeting in London, which we wrote about yesterday, he was very uneasy.

According to Sanya Popovic: "December was like clouded in a nightmare. He became increasingly nervous. He said that if I received a parcel I was not to open it under any circumstances. This was on 17 December. He said that people usually start getting parcels at this time, it being Christmas. But unless I knew who sent it, I was not to open it."

On 22 December - the day after the Pan Am bombing - Bernt Carlsson's apartment was sealed off. :"The lock was changed," says Sanya Popovic. "I was given one key, and the UN security department had another. I was told that sealing off everything could take a long time pending the analysis. I therefore ensured that all windows were properly locked, all lights switched off, etc. A few days later, however, a friend and I passed by the apartment in a taxi. The apartment is easy to recognise from the outside: front view, third floor and five windows. My friend pointed out that the lights were on. So I got out and walked back. I found that some lights were switched on but there was no-one there."

Sanya Popovic continues: "If there was anything of interest in the apartment, someone else got to it first."

On the evening of the disaster, the Swedish foreign minister, Sten Andersson, telephoned Bernt Carlsson's sister Inger Carlsson-Musser, who had lived in the US for almost 20 years, to give his commiserations. On 28 December 1988 Inger Carlsson-Musser travelled to New York to go through Bernt Carlsson's belongings in his UN office. This was the office which had been sealed off since the day of the accident. She asked Sanya Popovic and the Embassy Counsellor Stefan Noréen to help. We understand that his safe was empty. What can you say about that?

"Yes, it was empty," says Sanya Popovic. "And this was very unlike Bernt who was very security-conscious and kept all his documents under lock and key. But above all the office was sealed off. No-one should have been able to get in."

Message of Spring

In mid-1999, Sanya Popovic, who lost her late fiancé on Pan Am Flight 103 of 21 December 1988, wrote:

"In the eleven and a half years that have passed since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, I have learned so very much about love and grief and life. I recall how excruciatingly painful the first spring was after the bombing -- and indeed so many springs thereafter. How possibly could life be springing anew everywhere, when the man I loved was dead, and it seemed as though my soul, too, was dying within. Somewhere along the way, though, I began to see that the message of spring was a powerful and universal one, found in so many religions and different cultures. It was hardly a surprise that within the Christian faith, the death and resurrection of Christ was said to happen in the spring ... I began to find first, solace and later, hope, in the fact that the way of the world is that life, no matter what, begins again. And as long as there is life, and renewal, there is hope. So this year, my eleventh spring post-Pan Am 103, I do feel that my late fiancé is with me, in my heart, looking at the joy and beauty of spring."

Social media

Until 2010, Sanya Popovic used to have an account with Facebook where she was friends, inter alia, with Vincent Cannistraro, Patrick Haseldine and Jim Swire. She continues to maintain a Twitter account @sanjapopovic with followers including Safia Aoude, Ian Ferguson and Patrick Haseldine.