I lost my daughter in the Lockerbie disaster – but we still don’t really know the truth
Jim Swire's heartbreaking search for justice is being told in a new Sky drama.
On the wall of Dr Jim Swire and his wife’s bedroom hangs a painting of their daughter, Flora. She’s smiling, dressed in white and clutching a bunch of flowers in her right hand while poignantly holding out a forget-me-not in her left.
Of course, the couple could never forget Flora.
Ever since she was killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, Jim has fought relentlessly to ensure her plight, and that of 269 others, is remembered – and to reveal the truth about who killed them.
‘It’s a life sentence, to lose someone that you love so deeply,’ Jim, now 88, tells Metro.co.uk over Zoom from his Cotswolds home.
Crowding him are shelves packed with documents, folders, books and tapes amassed from over 35 years of research into exactly what happened that night just before Christmas.
‘She was my eldest daughter. And her integrity and intelligence was snuffed out in an avoidable disaster. And then the truth was concealed by those who should have been eager to reveal the truth,’ he says.
Jim wrote about the family’s heartbreaking search to find out what happened in his book, A Father’s Search For Justice, which has since inspired the Sky TV drama, Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth, where he is portrayed by Colin Firth.
The scene of devastation caused by the explosion of a 747 Pan Am Jumbo jet over Lockerbie (Picture: Roy Letkey/AFP via Getty Images)In the years since the trial, Jim has continued his fight for justice. He believes that the perpetrators were Iran; who targeted the plane in retribution for Iran Air Flight 655; an airbus that was accidentally shot down in July 1988 by the US Navy, killing 290 people.
‘Flora would have expected justice to be done and should have expected to have been protected in the first place,’ he says. ‘I’m sure the truth will come out eventually – probably not in my time, but the truth always comes out.’
John also expects justice in some form or other. He has now grieved his daughter for nearly twice as long as he knew her. At 84, he says he is comforted by the fact that he will be reunited with his daughter when this life is over and by the fact that her own death has allowed many lives to be saved.
Floral tributes are laid by the memorial stones in a garden of remembrance(Picture: AP)‘On the fifth morning after it all happened, I was in Helga’s bedroom at around half five,’ he recalls. ‘I hadn’t slept well that night and, looking back, I was looking for a way of coping. I opened my Bible at random and found my eyes dropped on a verse [that said] “Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good.” And I thought: “Yes. That’s how we win.”
Money had been pouring through the Moseys’ letterbox; donations from friends, parishioners and local businesses. So they set up the Helga Mosey Memorial Trust, which supports projects in India, Afghanistan, the Philippines and elsewhere.
John adds: ‘It supported a home for abused and abandoned children in the Philippines which has helped over 200 people. If Helga was still alive more than half of them would be dead.
‘We overcome evil by doing good, and when I think of more than 100 children that would be dead who are now prospering, who have had a good education and been to university, I realise Helga didn’t die for nothing. She would have been delighted that so many people have been helped.’
Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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