Colin Firth praises family of Lockerbie bombing victim as new Sky ...

Colin Firth has praised the father of Flora Swire, who was tragically killed in the horror Lockerbie bomb disaster in 1988.

The actor who stars in the brand new Sky drama about the teror attack claimed 'warmth and respect' radiated from Dr Jim Swire and family following their meeting.

Aerial photos taken yesterday show the mangled remains of Pan Am flight 103 in a corner of the Lincolnshire site.

The distinctive blue and white Pan Am livery is still visible, along with the window holes.

The aircraft was transferred to Windleys Salvage in Tattershall by eight lorries from an army base at Longtown near Carlisle after being carefully examined.

The Boeing 747 was en route from Heathrow to JFK when a bomb exploded in its hold on December 21, 1988, over Lockerbie. It is the worst ever terror attack on British soil and killed 270 people, including 43 British citizens and 190 Americans.

In five-part series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Firth portrays Dr Jim Swire, who lost daughter Flora in the atrocity, and has pursued justice with his wife Jane ever since.

The series focuses on Swire’s search for justice and is based on the book, The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Swire and Peter Biddulph. Only one man – intelligence operative Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from Tripoli – has ever been convicted over the attack. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with cancer. He died three years later in Libya.

But Swire has argued Megrahi was innocent. He believes Iran – and not Libya – downed the flight.

The series has once again pitted Swire against the families of other victims – who accept the official story Libyan spies planted the bomb.

Firth met up with the Swires before filming.

He said: “You can’t meet them without feeling a warmth and respect, then realising what a huge thing to live up to this would be.”

Firth was struck by Jim’s “alertness and intellectual agility”. He said: “This vigilance, this readiness to respond to new ideas, that was very apparent in that first meeting. Jim got straight to the point.”

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