The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988 was an event so large, so complex and so significant that for a long time it was hard for anyone to take a clear view on it. Many elements remain murky to this day, despite – or perhaps because of – it being an act of terror that was unprecedented in its effect on Britain and the US. The plane exploded over the small town of Lockerbie in Scotland, having taken off from London on its way to New York and Detroit, completing a journey that began in Frankfurt. The hunt for the perpetrators soon focused on the Middle East and north Africa. With half the world demanding answers, the families of the 270 people killed found it difficult to be heard.
The hidden human cost of the post-crash chaos is where The Bombing of Pan Am 103, a six-part fictionalisation, initially tries to find its dramatic impetus: the series argues that the dignity of the victims and the sensitivities of their loved ones were trampled. More care should have been taken to respect the dead, it says. But it struggles to turn this admirable sentiment into drama.
