‘Series of errors’ in 1985 Air India bombing

CANADA: Canadian security agencies, faulted for a series of mishaps in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 nearly 25 years ago, are still poorly equipped to prevent terror attacks on airliners, a commission concluded Thursday.

“This was the largest mass murder in Canadian history,” John Major, head of a commission of inquiry into the 1985 disaster, told a press conference.

“A cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of police and security forces to prevent this atrocity,” he said. “Various institutions and organizations did not fulfill their responsibilities.”

A total of 329 passengers and crew died when Air India Flight 182 en route from Canada exploded in mid-air off the coast of Ireland.

Two baggage handlers at Japan’s Narita airport were also killed in the blast of a second suitcase bomb tied to the plot.

The report said security agencies still need to undergo reforms to be prepared for these types of attacks.

Prosecutors argued that Canadian Sikh extremists had sought to bring down Air India jets in retaliation for the Indian government’s June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person ever convicted in the bombing, served 15 years in prison for manslaughter and making the bombs responsible for the Narita airport blast and the downing of Flight 182 the second-worst airline attack in history, behind the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

He was released on bail in July 2008 to await prosecution for alleged perjury in his witness testimony at the trial of two alleged co-conspirators acquitted in the case.

Major said “error, incompetence, and inattention” occurred before the Air India flight and in the aftermath during the investigation and legal proceedings.

In particular, he pointed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) and the then nascent Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS) failings.

OTTAWA, Friday, AFP