SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Twenty years ago the world changed for 270 families whose loved ones were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Lockerbie, Scotland. The plane exploded in a terrorist attack. Among the dead, 35 Syracuse University students on their way home from a semester abroad. This anniversary brings back many bittersweet memories.

"Twenty years ago at this very moment, Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie Scotland. As we remember and look forward, let us know that we join countless others who have gathered in this chapel and that we are not alone."

Interim Dean of Hendrick's Chapel spoke these words at a service in memory of the victims of Pan Am flight 103.

For those who had friends aboard that plane, Sunday was a day of mixed emotions.

"It just brought us back to that day, I think, and the shock of everything. How much we've gotten the chance to live in 20 years and our friends didn't get the chance," said Judy Sutton, friend of some of the victims on board the plane.

Sutton made the trip from Chicago to Syracuse for the service.

She met up with other friends, who were also seniors at SU the year the plane exploded.

Friends, including Michele Jabloner-Weiss, whose best friend Amy Shapiro was among the 35 students coming back from a semester abroad.

"Amy and I were friends from Kindergarten to college and, it was just a beautiful remembrance," said Jabloner-Weiss.

Even those who didn't personally know those on board Pan Am 103 were forever changed by the tragedy.

Kelly Rodoski was an S-U freshman in 1988.

She now works for the university and chaired the Pan Am 103 20th anniversary committee.

"You don't expect people that you walk the campus with and that are your age and are on the same track in life that you are are going to be blown out of the sky and lose their lives in such a horrendous, unfair way," said Rodoski.

She hopes those who died, and those who lost a loved one are proud that their legacy is remembered on the SU campus.

"It's always going to be a very sad thing for me to remember and for all of us who were there at that time to remember, it's just not something we ever should have had to deal with or ever want to deal with," Rodoski said.

Additional services were held in Washington D.C. and Lockerbie, Scotland.

And for more on the Pan Am attack, make sure you check out Bill Carey's series six part series "Terror and Tears: The story of Pan Am Flight 103."

Click HERE for the full series.