Lockerbie: A Search for Truth official trailer
The new Sky series, Lockerbie, delves into the relentless pursuit of justice by campaigner Jim Swire as he seeks to understand the plane crash that claimed numerous lives including his daughter.
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is centred around Swire's quest for justice and draws inspiration from the book, The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice, penned by Swire and Peter Biddulph.
The five-part series follows Dr Jim Swire (Colin Firth) who is on a mission to uncover the truth about the fatal crash that killed his daughter Flora and 269 others on December 21, 1988.
Only one individual intelligence operative Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from Tripoli has ever been convicted in relation to the attack. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer and passed away three years later in Libya.
The Daily Record reports Swire maintains that Megrahi was innocent and asserts that Iran, not Libya, was responsible for downing the flight. In the series, available in full on Sky and NOW, viewers witness Dr Swire smuggling a fake bomb onto a flight.
But did this event truly occur and what was his motivation?
Did Jim Swire bring a fake bomb onboard a plane?
Doctor Jim Swire did indeed carry a fake bomb on a flight, and the drama largely presents an accurate account of the events. He constructed a fake bomb within a radio cassette player to mirror the one that had exploded on Pan Am Flight 103.
Dr Swire used marzipan to simulate the explosive agent in the original bomb and transported this device on a flight from Heathrow to New York City on May 18, 1990.
This was the same route that the flight his daughter Flora took and his cassette-recorder was examined by a security guard. The guard examined the device and only asked if the batteries had been removed, before the Lockerbie campaigner was allowed to pass.
Dr Swire was not stopped once along the way, a move that seems barely believable in comparison with today's heightened security measures.
Dr Swire's intention was to demonstrate that airport security had not improved since the plane crash. Family members of American victims wanted to keep his stunt private and other campaigners were unhappy with Dr Swire.
But the difference between reality and the show is the bomb stunt wasn't made public until six weeks later. The Sky show depicts the news of the incident in episode two being made public instantly, which was likely done by writers to make narrative sense.
At the time, Los Angeles Times reported Dr Swire told journalists in a press conference in July 1990: "You simply cannot imagine how depressing it was flying over the Atlantic knowing that there could easily be a bomb in the cargo hold below."
He added: "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."
