The death of Moammar Khaddafy is especially significant for a South Florida woman whose husband was killed in a bombing many believe was directed by the Libyan leader himself.
Victoria Cummock lost her husband in 1988 when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland.
"The world is a much better place without Moammar Khaddafy," Cummock said from her home in Coral Gables. "This is a day I never thought I'd see in my lifetime."
38-year-old John Cummock was sitting in seat 3A on December 21, 1988 when flight 103 left London for New York's JFK airport.
Just minutes after takeoff the plane exploded, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew, along with 11 people who died in houses consumed by fire when the plane fell to earth.
Two Libyans were convicted of the attack, but many believe Khaddafy was the mastermind.<
Weeks ago during the Libyan uprising, a former justice minister under Khaddafy told a Swedish newspaper the leader had ordered the bombing directly.
Local
Since the day she lost her husband, Cummock has become an advocate for aviation safety, serving the co-president of Families of Pan Am 103.
She also led the Khaddafy Terror Initiative, a group of victims of the Libyan's terror attacks around the world.
"When my husband was killed," she said, "I pledged to him that I would seek justice for his murder."
After 23 years, Cummock said that justice has been served.
"For 40 years, nothing happened in Libya without specific orders from Moammar Khaddafy...[yet] no one had ever pursued Khaddafy or the upper levels of his regime and tried to hold them accountable for the mass murder of American citizens," she said.
"He came to power with brutality, and he ended his life in equal brutality."
Through his years of dictatorship, Khaddafy was accused of killing thousands of his own people and thousands of others.
"Khaddafy needed to be brought to justice -- not only for my husband and for the other passengers of Pan Am 103, but for all of the tens of thousands of innocent civilians he had killed," Cummock said.
While Cummock is "elated" and "relieved" at Khaddafy's death, she said she hopes it empowers the people of Libya, sending a message to other violent Middle East regimes that their days are numbered -- and that it's time for people living under those governments to judge how they are going to live.
