Peacock’s Lockerbie: A Search for Truth details the dogged pursuit by Jim Swire, played by Colin Firth, to find those responsible for the death of his daughter in the tragic bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The series is based on The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice, written by Swire, and largely keeps the narrative on Swire and his remaining family, interspersed with other perspectives. Nevertheless, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth has stirred up controversy, with many of the Lockerbie families vehemently disagreeing with Swire (one woman called Swire’s account a “narrative that the great majority of us who lost loved ones do not align with and have fought very hard against”), but Collider’s own Taylor Gates, in her review, sees it more as a character study than as propaganda to earn public favor for his claims. But what it really does is shine a light on the investigation of the terrorist act, one that has taken decades without firm resolution, a tragic story of a tragic investigation into a tragedy.
What Happened in the Skies Above Lockerbie on December 21, 1988?
Pan-Am Flight 103 arrived at Heathrow Terminal 3 on December 21, 1988, a layover before resuming its journey to New York City. Shortly after 7 PM, an explosion from the luggage compartment blew open a 20-inch hole in the fuselage. The explosion, coupled with the rapid decompression, broke the fuselage into large pieces, which fell to the ground from 31,000 feet above the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland. One section of wing, falling at a rate of 500 miles per hour, hit a home in the area, per NBC, killing those in the house and their neighbors. Burning aviation fuel ignited multiple fires, turning Lockerbie into a literal hell on Earth. The damage was startling: millions of pieces of wreckage were strewn across an area of nearly 800 square miles, leaving an indelible scar on the town that has since been rebuilt. The physical damage, however, pales in comparison to the devastating numbers of lives lost, the deadliest terror attack on the U.K. to date: 259 passengers, 16 crew, and 11 Lockerbie residents, each of whom left behind loved ones, irrevocably damaging them and generations to follow.
One of those passengers was Flora Swire (played by Rosanna Adams), who had intended to fly to New York to spend Christmas with her boyfriend. Lockerbie: A Search for Truth does spend a few minutes with Flora as Jim and his wife, Jane (played by Catherine McCormack) see her off, a savvy move by director Otto Bathurst to have the viewer make that emotional connection with her before the tragedy occurs on screen. The explosion is refreshingly unsensational but gripping, especially when coupled with the Swire’s growing dread. The tragedy spurred Jim Swire, a general practitioner, into advocacy, joining and becoming a spokesperson for U.K. Families Flight 103.
The FBI partnered with Scottish police and launched a three-year investigation in the days that followed. The key piece of evidence that drove the investigation was a burnt shirt, recovered 30 miles outside Lockerbie. Found in the neckband was a circuit board fragment, which the CIA and FBI linked to an MST-13 bomb timer, concealed in a Toshiba radio cassette player. The timer was traced back to MEBO, a Swiss company, while the cloth scrap was traced back to a Maltese clothing shop.
The owners of MEBO and the shop in Malta had a name in common that they gave authorities: Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The former asserted that he knew al-Megrahi from Zurich, where they had offices next to each other, while the latter recollected selling clothes to a man who looked like the suspect in the weeks before the bombing. In November 1991, per Time, arrest warrants were issued for al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, but only Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi refused calls for the pair to be extradited to authorities in Washington or Edinburgh.
Gaddafi’s refusal to comply led to years of sanctions against Libya, which didn’t come to an end until 1999, after Nelson Mandela and the United Nations brokered a deal. The pair were sent to Camp Zeist, a former U.S. air force base in the Netherlands, to be tried by a Scottish court. Finally, in 2001, al-Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder, while Fhimah was found not guilty and acquitted (per Time). In 2003, the Libyan government took responsibility “for the actions of its officials” and paid out $2.7 billion in compensation, but Gaddafi himself never took personal blame for the attack. Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life but was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. al-Megrahi, the only person ever convicted of the act, died in 2012, but maintained his innocence to the end.
Jim Swire Makes Waves as Depicted in ‘Lockerbie: A Search for Truth’
Al-Megrahi’s claims of innocence were backed up by none other than Jim Swire himself. Swire had been spending the years since the explosion doing his own investigation, looking not only for the people responsible, but also to expose the weaknesses in security and protocols that led to the act itself, and it’s his efforts that drive the narrative of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.
One of the more unbelievable acts Swire is shown doing in the series is bringing a fake bomb on board a British Airways flight from London to New York to Boston, exposing the lax security at airports. Unbelievable, yes, but true. In 1990, Swife built a replica of the bomb, which included a dummy detonator, timer, batteries, a pressure switch, and fake explosives filled with harmless marzipan, and placed it inside a portable stereo, as had been deduced by authorities in the initial act. He took the fake bomb on the flight, even leaving marzipan visible to rouse suspicion by airport security, only the stereo passed inspection. Of the plan, Swire says, “This was not a prank. It was a serious experiment, and unfortunately, it succeeded. Here, 18 months after Lockerbie, one can take an identical device through security. I find that very depressing,” Swire also helped identify two warnings about an upcoming airplane attack sent in the days prior to the Lockerbie tragedy, one on December 5th and one a few days prior.
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The Evidence That Damns the Investigation Into the Events Depicted in ‘Lockerbie: A Search for Truth’
As for believing al-Megrahi’s innocence, it stems from Swire pointing out inconsistencies in the evidence used to convict al-Megrahi, and his belief that both the U.K. and the U.S. governments have lied about the “official” findings (per NBC). Per Time, Swire maintains that it was Iran, not Libya, that initiated the terrorist act, and there is evidence to back that up. In 1991, a fact sheet released by the U.S. State Department states that officials initially looked at the attack as retaliation for the accidental shooting down of an Iranian Airbus in July 1988, a joint plan between Iranian and Palestinian parties. Ultimately, investigators dropped the theory, saying the bomb technology was different from a similar bomb recovered from the car of a Palestinian militant two months prior. The decision not to pursue the Iran angle would be questioned in 2014, when an Iranian defector claimed the attack was ordered by Iran leader Ayatollah Khomheini (per Time) “to copy exactly what happened to the Iranian Airbus.”
New evidence continues to come to light that supports Swire’s assertions about al-Megrahi’s innocence, keeping the case open decades after the event. In 2020, a criminal complaint, made public by the U.S. Department of Justice, was levied against Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi (Mas’ud), a former Libyan intelligence operative. Mas’ud is accused of actually making the bomb that took down Pan-Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie, and in December 2022, Mas’ud was taken into custody, per announcements given by both the American and Scottish governments. At the time, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco described the arrest as “another crucial step in delivering justice for the victims of the senseless terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103.”
Mas’ud is to stand trial on American soil in May 2025, which has spurred on a renewal of official activity into the Lockerbie case. The logistics of the trial bear with it the same types of hurdles that have plagued the investigation from the beginning: a series of miscommunications, red tape, and international alliances that prevent full closure for the families and friends of those whose lives were lost all those years ago. One example is the difficulty in having a large piece of wrecked fuselage from the plane transported to the U.S. from Europe as evidence. Whether the trial puts a definitive end to the Lockerbie attack remains to be seen, but until it is, projects like Lockerbie: A Search for Truth will continue to keep the investigation alive with questions that demand, and deserve, to be answered.
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is available to stream in the U.S. on Peacock
Dr. Jim Swire’s relentless quest for justice unfolds after losing his daughter in the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy over Lockerbie. This series follows his transcontinental journey that challenges his trust in the justice system and impacts his stability, family, and worldview.
- Release Date
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January 2, 2025
- Cast
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Colin Firth
, Catherine McCormack
, Sam Troughton
, Mark Bonnar
, Andy Nyman
, Ardalan Esmaili
, Selwa Jghalef - Main Genre
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Drama
