Air India lessons ignored

Security is no laughing matter, but the federal government seems determined to treat it like one, judging by its lackadaisical reaction to former Supreme Court Justice John Major's public inquiry into the Air India bombing.
All 329 people aboard died on June 23, 1985 when a concealed bomb aboard Air India 182, en route from Montreal to London, blew up over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The culprits were Sikhs angry over an Indian military assault the year before on Sikhism's holiest shrine, the separatist-occupied Golden Temple, which resulted in heavy casualties.
Although suspects in the bombing were brought to trial, official bungling has always clouded the truth about the plot and its perpetrators. Ostensibly aiming to clear the air and prevent a repeat tragedy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Major in 2006 to head the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. The Commission's final report was released last June and makes for unpleasant reading.
It found authorities had sufficient data to stop the bombings, but not only did they neglect to act upon them, they could not even be bothered to share them with other branches of the government, much less co-operate on airport security. Further, many of the holes in airport security which the commission identified still have not been filled after 25 years, most glaringly a lacklustre approach to cargo inspection, which violates Canada's international obligations to guard against aircraft bombings "by any means whatsoever."
11/12/10 Calgary Herald

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2010, Air India Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010