Air India 'big-bang event,' court told

The Air India bombing was the crescendo in an international campaign by Sikh extremists that included nine earlier hijackings, the Ottawa inquiry probing the 1985 terrorist attack heard yesterday.
"Air India was the 10th and the big bang event as far as the Khalistan independence movement was concerned and, therefore, to that degree it was predictable," University of Manitoba professor Peter St. John testified. "We could anticipate that something might happen."
Prof. St. John began studying aviation security and terrorism after losing his best student and teaching assistant, 23-yearold Rahul Aggarwal, in the bombing.
His research showed him that for years before the Air India blast, there were cycles in terms of both hijackings and sabotage of aircraft that should have been an indicator to aviation authorities.
"You could see the movement gathering for something extreme," Prof. St. John said of Sikh separatists here. "I don't think that Canadian airport security or transport Canada or any of our security people were ready for Air India."
Prof. St. John, who has authored several books on aviation security, was part of a panel of three experts who testified at the inquiry as it began yesterday to examine airport security.
Rodney Wallis, an international civil aviation security consultant, explained he predicted a bombing like that of Air India at a U.S. conference in April, 1985, and made recommendations that could have prevented the attack.
"What I tried to do is warn that this is the danger -- we had to consider how do we cope with this," he said. "We pushed for passenger and baggage reconciliation."
30/05/07 Kim Bolan/CanWest News Service/National Post, Canada

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Categories: Air India May 2007, Foreign May 2007, Safety May 2007