Jim Swire

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jim Swire

• After completing his graduation from the University of Cambridge, he joined the army where he learned about plastic explosives.

• He then moved to work with the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as a technologist before becoming a doctor.

• He became an advocate for justice for the victims of the Lockerbie Bombing, in which Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up using a suitcase bomb on the flight resulting in the death of everyone on the flight.

• The Pan Am Flight 103 also carried his daughter, Flora Swire, who was travelling to America to meet her boyfriend, Dr. Hart Lidov to spend Christmas with him.

• After 2 Libyans, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, were named suspects in the bombing, he requested a trial of the bomb suspects. He even visited Libya thrice to meet with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for help in cooperation with the trial.

• He has advocated for the retrial and release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as he considered him to be innocent and convicted due to the improper trial.

• According to Jim, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) a Syrian-backed group is responsible for the bombing which served as an act of retaliation against the American attack on the Iranian flight, killing 290 people on board.

• He has served as a spokesman for the UK Families Flight 103 group which consists of family members of the victims of the Lockerbie Bombing since December 1988.

• In 2021, he published the book, ‘The Lockerbie Bombing – A Father’s Search for Justice.’

  

• In December 2024, he requested the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer to publish complete information known to the British government regarding the Lockerbie Bombing case.

• Claiming that releasing all the documents held by the British government would help families get closure and maintain trust in the government in an interview, he said,
  

  That would be a tremendous help. Here we are, 36 years down the road, and we know a lot of material has been kept out of public view. Why isn’t it in the public interest to release it after 36 years? I think that’s something a lot of people would think is pretty fishy.”

• On 2 January 2025, a British TV series was released titled ‘Lockerbie: A Search for Truth’ based on his book, ‘The Lockerbie Bombing – A Father’s Search for Justice.’

  

• In an interview, he talked positively about the series and admitted to finding it difficult to continue on his path due to his age. He said,
  

  You can make your own decision about whether you believe the official version or the alternative that we’ve laboured so far to find. I hope this the Sky series will do that because I’m getting pretty long in the tooth and I can’t go on doing this forever.”