The Bombing of Pan Am 103. L to R Amanda Drew as Linda Burman, Adrian Lukis as Roy Burman and James Harkness as Sandy Gay in The Bombing of Pan Am 103. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Netflix’s new drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103 covers a terrorist attack that occurred back in 1988, and the subsequent international investigation that followed — a case that’s still not fully resolved today.
Back on a cold winter’s night in December 1988, when 243 passengers and 16 crew members boarded Pan Am Flight 103 at London Heathrow Airport, none of them made it to New York. The commercial aircraft was bombed to the ground over the quaint Scottish town of Lockerbie: everyone on board was killed, and 11 Scottish locals were killed in the fallout as the wreckage caused an inferno, destroying a neighborhood. Known as the Lockerbie air disaster, it remains the deadliest terrorist attack ever on UK soil, and the deadliest act of aviation terrorism ever prior to September 11. This disaster is the subject of BBC drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103, which recently landed on Netflix.
Starring Connor Swindells, Patrick J. Adams, and Merritt Wever, the six-part drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103 depicts the terrifying moments of the aircraft’s destruction, and delves into the extensive international investigation that followed. Naturally, the investigation involved England, Scotland, and the United States. England was involved in the investigation since the flight originated there. Scotland led the investigation, and also dealt with the explosion and subsequent devastating effects. Plus, the United States played a role given that 190 residents were killed on their way home.
The key departments in the investigation of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 were: the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the UK Forensic Science Laboratories, the FBI, the CIA, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In addition, the German police were also involved, with Frankfurt serving as a connecting airport for Pan Am 103.
The series serves as an excellent, almost documentary-like examination of the case, but even after it ends, all these years later, the investigation is still active.
Where does the case stand today?
The outcome of the investigation, as depicted in the drama.
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 covers the case right up to the international investigation across Malta and the U.S., and the requisite 2000 trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, where the case was decided by a panel of three judges rather than a jury. It saw two Libyans stand trial. Firstly, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, there was no conclusive evidence that Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the other accused, had assisted al-Megrahi in sneaking a bomb onto Flight 103, and he was found Not Guilty, returning to Libya.
The Libyan state was found both legally and financially accountable, and Muammar Gaddafi paid $2.7 billion in compensation to the victims’ families in 2003.
To date, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi remains the only person ever convicted for the attack. In 2009, he was controversially released on compassionate grounds after a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He returned home to Libya and died three years later, always maintaining his innocence.
The trial of Abu Agila Mas’ud takes place in Washington, D.C., later this year.
Over 35 years later, the inquest into the Lockerbie disaster continues to be explored, notably with a high-profile trial aiming to take place later this year. Unlike the 2000 trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, which took place under Scottish law, this one marks the first trial to be undertaken in the United States, under American law.
The upcoming trial, taking place in Washington, D.C., involves Abu Agila Mas’ud, a man suspected of making the bomb which blew up the aircraft. According to the US Department of Justice (as reported by BBC News), Mas’ud admitted to his involvement in the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 when questioned at a Libyan detention facility in 2012. Mas’ud has since declared the confession to be false and under duress, making it inadmissible in court. Mas’ud has a history of terrorist acts, notably the bombing of LaBelle Discotheque in West Berlin in 1986, which killed three people.
The trial has been delayed a few times at this point, with reasons ranging from Mas’ud’s health to the myriad complexities of a case that dates back over 35 years. It was targeted to occur on April 20, 2026, but remains gridlocked in proceedings.
Also cited as having involvement is Abdulla al-Senussi, the former intelligence chief and brother-in-law of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. While Mas’ud faces trial in the United States, Senussi is currently in a Tripoli prison in Libya, facing trial for domestic atrocities. Even if the US were to charge him, actually bringing him to face trial in the United States would be almost impossible.
The key characters in The Bombing of Pan Am 103: Who was real and who is fictionalised?
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 features a large cast, many of whom are based on real people, and some being fictionalized additions, though inspired by real-life experiences. Below, we’ve listed all of the main cast, and where their real-life counterparts are today.
- DS Ed McCusker (Connor Swindells) — fictionalised character — In the show, McCusker is a detective sergeant from the Glasgow CID. He’s one of the first officials to arrive on the site of the explosion. There was no real Ed McCusker, but his role no doubt echoes what real Scottish officers would’ve experienced in the midst of the explosion.
- DCS John Orr (Peter Mullan) — based on a real-life person — DCS John Orr was a real senior police officer and the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police. He led early stages of the Lockerbie investigation. Orr sadly passed away in 2018, aged 72.
- FBI Special Agent Dick Marquise (Patrick J. Adams) — based on a real-life person — An FBI agent for over 30 years, he was among the most decorated in his space. Following his work in leading the FBI investigation of the Lockerbie bombing, he served as the chief of the Terrorist Research and Analytical Center (TRAC), specialising in Middle Eastern terrorism.
- Kathryn Turman (Merritt Wever) — based on a real-life person — Turman was instrumental in supporting the families of the victims. In the 1990s, she led the Victim Witness Assistance Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She would officially join the FBI in 2002.
- Moira Shearer (Phyllis Logan) — based on a real-life person — Moira was a local resident in Lockerbie who, along with other residents Elma Pringle and Josephine Donaldson, decided to help out by cleaning and recovering items of clothing scattered in the debris, delivering them back to families as cleanly and respectfully as possible.
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 is now streaming on Netflix.