Air India Flight 182 was a 747 flight that was blown out of the sky June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board, many of them Canadian citizens. As time progressed, it was determined that a bomb on board had gone off, blowing the aircraft to pieces.
Air India 182 was, until the 9-11 slaughter, the largest terrorist act involving aircraft in the world. The reasons for the bombing? Depending on who you talk to, it was Sikh extremism, demanding a homeland called Khalistan in the Punjab region of India. Let’s just call it religious intolerance and extremism, as the whole Sikh rights, Indian rights and religious follies of India are incomprehensible to Western brains at the best of times.
Since the flight started in Canada, the Canadian Aviation Safety Board was involved from moment one. There were arrests, then trials and in March 2005, a not guilty on all counts which sent many eyebrows straight up in the air.
The judge, Justice Ian Josephson said, "I began by describing the horrific nature of these cruel acts of terrorism, acts which cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite what appear to have been the best and most earnest of efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard"
With the formal trials over, the Federal Government could now investigate exactly what went wrong in the investigation. The list is reading like the Three Stooges in an airport. There was no positive bag match of passengers with luggage. Air India had received numerous threats against their aircraft, not just in Canada, but around the world. Bomb detection equipment was either not working, or couldn’t detect a sample of gunpowder when the sniffer head was put right on the sample. Police bomb dogs were called but the flight was released to fly before the dog and handler could get to the airport. There was economic pressures from the airline to get back on schedule.
To add to the muddle, it has finally come out that the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (we call them Spies Canada) had solid evidence that something serious was up but either didn’t, or didn’t care enough to act upon the evidence to lock down Air India 182. Wiretaps were erased, documents disappeared and now, 22 years after the event, memories are shaky.
We have to be careful that we don’t look at the whole sequence with our post 9-11 eyes, as that is Monday Morning Quarterbacking of the least useful type. However, it looks very bad for the RCMP and CSIS. CSIS had an explicit warning that something bad was planned for that week in June, involving an Air India flight from Canada. Air India asked for extra coverage, but still let their aircraft fly without following protocols. The RCMP didn’t act on what looks like a solid intelligence lead.
The families of the victims have been pushing for a formal, comprehensive investigation since June 1985 and each time there has been a reason or two why the investigation can’t go ahead. First it was before the courts, then it was internally investigated, then it was before a Crown Enquiry. Nobody could comment, or release the information, as other group took precedence. This is called ‘pass the buck’ in bureaucratese. As well, some of the information and sources of information are listed as secret, so they can’t be questioned in open court.
What we can tell, even deducting fifty percent for the passage of time and a lot of groups having axes to either grind or hide, is that the RCMP, CSIS and Air India collectively botched it.
As a consequence, Air India Flight 182 became aluminum rain over the Atlantic, south of Ireland. Three hundred and twenty nine people lost their lives.
RoadDave 