Air India Flight 182 bombing
The Air India Flight 182 bombing occurred on June 23, 1985, when a bomb exploded on the aircraft off the coast of Ireland, resulting in the deaths of 329 individuals, including 307 passengers and 22 crew members. This tragic event was rooted in a complex context of political and religious tensions, particularly the Sikh struggle for an independent state called Khalistan in India, which had intensified following significant incidents such as the 1984 raid on the Golden Temple and the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The bombing was linked to militant Sikh separatists, with a group of conspirators also responsible for a simultaneous explosion on Canadian Pacific Flight 003 in Tokyo.
The investigation revealed four primary suspects, with Talwinder Singh Parmar identified as the leader of the operation. Despite heavy scrutiny and various charges against him and his associates, insufficient evidence ultimately prevented a strong prosecution in connection with the Flight 182 bombing. The incident underscored the global implications of terrorism related to religious disputes and prompted heightened security measures in Canada and beyond. In 2005, a new investigation was launched to reassess the circumstances surrounding the bombing and its aftermath. This tragedy remains a significant reminder of the complex interplay between political activism and violence in a global context.
Air India Flight 182 bombing
The Event Terrorist attack on a civilian airliner
Date June 23, 1985
The bombing of Air India Flight 182, from Canada to India, killed all 329 people on board. The event caused Canada to tighten airport security and reevaluate prevention policies on terrorism.
The bombing of Air India Flight 182 resulted from a religious and political power struggle between India’s government and a religion known as Sikhism . In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Indian Sikhs had appealed unsuccessfully to their government to create an independent state in Punjab, India, which would be called Khalistan. Later, in 1984, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holiest temple, was raided. Four months later, Sikh bodyguards retaliated by assassinating Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister. The movement for succession of an independent state was supported by Sikhs around the world, especially in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Check-in
The Air India Flight 182 bombing took place on June 23, 1985. The conspirators were also responsible for bombing Canadian Pacific Flight 003 to Tokyo on the same day. On June 20, 1985, two airline reservations were made in the names of M. Singh and L. Singh. M. Singh was ticketed on Canadian Pacific Flight 060, departing Vancouver for Toronto. He was wait-listed on Air India Flight 181/182 from Toronto to Delhi via Montreal. L. Singh was to board Canadian Pacific Flight 003 from Vancouver to Tokyo and to connect with Air India Flight 301 to Bangkok. On the morning of June 22, 1985, a Canadian Pacific Airlines reservation agent received a phone call from an individual claiming to be M. Singh, who wanted to know if his flight was confirmed and if his luggage could be sent to Delhi on Flight 182 even if he remained on the waiting list. The reservation agent informed the caller that according to airline regulations, luggage could only be sent on confirmed flights.
Around 7:50 a.m. Pacific daylight time, an individual arrived at the check-in desk in Vancouver with a ticket for M. Singh. The airline agent later recalled that the man was very insistent that his luggage be sent to Delhi even without a confirmed flight from Montreal to Delhi. After several heated words, the agent finally agreed to transfer the luggage from Canadian Pacific Flight 060 to Air India Flight 181/182. Later that day, an individual claiming to be L. Singh checked into Flight 003 to Tokyo. It was later established that the identifications of the individuals were not verified and that neither of the passengers boarded his flight.
The Explosion
The explosion occurred off the coast of Ireland at 7:14 a.m. Greenwich mean time. The aircraft relayed no distress signals. As soon as the plane went off radar, air traffic control initiated a marine rescue mission. The plane fell from an altitude of thirty-one thousand feet and sank about sixty-seven hundred feet into the ocean. In theory, even if some passengers survived the detonation, they would have drowned once they entered the water. A total of 307 passengers and 22 crewmembers were killed.
In Tokyo, Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 003 arrived at 2:37 p.m. local time (5:37 a.m. Greenwich mean time) from Vancouver. An hour later, approximately fifty-five minutes before the Flight 182 explosion, luggage handlers were removing baggage from Flight 003 when a bomb detonated, killing two baggage handlers and injuring four others. It was later established that the same conspirators were behind both explosions.
The Suspects
The Canadian police found four men to be the primary suspects in the bombings. They believed Talwinder Singh Parmar to be the leader of both operations. Parmar was the Canadian leader of a militant Sikh separatist group called Babbar Khalsa. The focus of this violent organization was to establish Punjab, India, as an independent state for Sikhs.
In 1983, Parmar was indicted in India for killing two Indian police officers. After he spent a year in Canadian jail, however, the Canadian government refused to extradite him to India. Parmar was closely watched by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as a result of various suspicious activities. Less than a month before the bombings, CSIS observed Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat enter the woods in Vancouver Island. The agents then heard a loud noise, which they assumed to be the pair firing guns. Shortly after the bombing, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched Parmar and Reyat’s dwellings and charged the men with possession of weapons and explosives, as well as conspiracy. Both men were released after paying fines. In 1992, Parmar was killed in a reported gunfire exchange in India. There was never sufficient evidence to charge Parmar with the Air India bombings, despite the Canadians’ belief that he was the leader of the conspiracy.
Out of the four main suspects in the Air India bombings, Inderjit Singh Reyat was the only one convicted for the crimes. Reyat’s involvement began when he started receiving phone calls from Parmar and others who were known to be Sikh extremists. In 1990, he was charged with manslaughter for the Tokyo Airport bombing and was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison. Reyat was later charged with murder in the Flight 182 case; he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to five years in prison. Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were also charged for the Air India bombings, but they were found not guilty on all counts.
Impact
The Air India Flight 182 bombing alerted people around the world to the potential implications of religious disputes in seemingly distant countries. It confirmed that in a decade witnessing the rise of globalism, terror too was becoming global, and it illustrated the dangers posed by terrorist organizations to neutral or third-party nations. The bombing forced the Canadian government to increase its security precautions at airports and elsewhere in the country, and it gave pause to other nations as well.
Subsequent Events
A new investigation on the Air India bombings was launched in 2005 by Jack Mayor, a retired Canadian Supreme Court justice. The investigation’s primary objectives were to evaluate the circumstances of the incident, to determine if justice was served by the trials of those accused, and to conclude whether the incident could occur again despite modern precautions.
Bibliography
Dobson, Christopher, and Ronald Payne. “The Golden Temple (India).” In The Never-Ending War: Terrorism in the 1980’s. New York: Facts on File, 1987. Examination of Indian Sikh terrorism in the 1980’s, especially in the wake of the raid on the Golden Temple; part of a general study of terrorism in the 1980’s.
Laqueur, Walter. Terrorism: A Study of National and International Political Violence. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977. A comprehensive look at the intersections of nationalist and international politics and terrorism.
Netanyahu, Benjamin. Fighting Terrorism. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. This overview of terrorism in the 1980’s and 1990’s provides details of terrorist activity in the Middle East, Canada, and the United States.