On June 23, 1985, a New Delhi-bound Air India flight took off from Toronto in Canada and a few hours later, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. All 329 on board were killed after a bomb ripped through the aircraft in what is till date the worst mass murder in Canadian history. But several thousand miles away, another nation was also in shock.
Of the deceased, 24 people were Indian citizens and many others were Canadians of Indian origin. Moreover, the attack was a fallout of a recent and bloody event on Indian soil that played out hundreds of kilometres above sea level, off the coast of Ireland.
Believed to have been carried out by the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa, the bomb blast was aimed at sending a message to India one year after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ordered a military operation on the Golden Temple in Amritsar to crack down on separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bindrawale and his followers. Operation Bluestar (June 1-June 8, 1984) succeeded in killing Bindrawale, who had led the demand for an independent Khalistan homeland for the Sikhs, but the Sikh community across the world was outraged at the violent siege on their holiest shrine. That event had a long and bloody ripple effect, which included Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards later that year, violent anti-Sikh riots across India, and eventually, the explosion in the sky.
The ensuing trial, the lengthiest investigation in Canada, yielded little result: only one of the accused was convicted, another is believed to have been killed in a police encounter in India and two others were let off for lack of evidence. The incident has cast a long shadow on India-Canadian ties, most recently evident during Justin Trudeau’s visit to India in February. The Canadian prime minister got a frosty reception by New Delhi, in no small part because India believes that Canada continues to go soft on Sikh extremists.
The various strands of this tragedy, including the final hours of the passengers on board the flight, the complex and eventually unsuccessful investigation, and the pain of the families who lost their loved ones, were explored in a 2008 documentary by Sturla Gunnarsson. Air India 182 tries to construct – and de-construct – the events surrounding the tragedy, using interviews with investigative officers and families of the deceased, evidence from court documents, declassified intelligence reports and recordings from wiretaps on the suspects.
The documentary combines interviews and real footage from that period with docu-drama style re-enactments of the final hours of the passengers on board Flight 182. It also delves into another terror attack on the same day, which investigators believed was carried out by the same masterminds – the explosion at Narita International Airport in Japan, which killed two baggage handlers. That bomb was intended to cause a second plane crash, on Air India Flight 301, but burst prematurely.
Among those interviewed are officials from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Services, Air India staff members, prominent Sikhs in Canada and bereaved family members.
What stands out over the course of 90 riveting minutes are the many ominous signs – some literal, others symbolic – in the hours leading up to the crash. These fraught moments that were either overlooked or didn’t seem to amount to anything at the time paint a picture of a heartbreaking tragedy that was ultimately avoidable.
22/06/18 Soumya Rao/Scroll
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Of the deceased, 24 people were Indian citizens and many others were Canadians of Indian origin. Moreover, the attack was a fallout of a recent and bloody event on Indian soil that played out hundreds of kilometres above sea level, off the coast of Ireland.
Believed to have been carried out by the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa, the bomb blast was aimed at sending a message to India one year after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ordered a military operation on the Golden Temple in Amritsar to crack down on separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bindrawale and his followers. Operation Bluestar (June 1-June 8, 1984) succeeded in killing Bindrawale, who had led the demand for an independent Khalistan homeland for the Sikhs, but the Sikh community across the world was outraged at the violent siege on their holiest shrine. That event had a long and bloody ripple effect, which included Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards later that year, violent anti-Sikh riots across India, and eventually, the explosion in the sky.
The ensuing trial, the lengthiest investigation in Canada, yielded little result: only one of the accused was convicted, another is believed to have been killed in a police encounter in India and two others were let off for lack of evidence. The incident has cast a long shadow on India-Canadian ties, most recently evident during Justin Trudeau’s visit to India in February. The Canadian prime minister got a frosty reception by New Delhi, in no small part because India believes that Canada continues to go soft on Sikh extremists.
The various strands of this tragedy, including the final hours of the passengers on board the flight, the complex and eventually unsuccessful investigation, and the pain of the families who lost their loved ones, were explored in a 2008 documentary by Sturla Gunnarsson. Air India 182 tries to construct – and de-construct – the events surrounding the tragedy, using interviews with investigative officers and families of the deceased, evidence from court documents, declassified intelligence reports and recordings from wiretaps on the suspects.
The documentary combines interviews and real footage from that period with docu-drama style re-enactments of the final hours of the passengers on board Flight 182. It also delves into another terror attack on the same day, which investigators believed was carried out by the same masterminds – the explosion at Narita International Airport in Japan, which killed two baggage handlers. That bomb was intended to cause a second plane crash, on Air India Flight 301, but burst prematurely.
Among those interviewed are officials from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Services, Air India staff members, prominent Sikhs in Canada and bereaved family members.
What stands out over the course of 90 riveting minutes are the many ominous signs – some literal, others symbolic – in the hours leading up to the crash. These fraught moments that were either overlooked or didn’t seem to amount to anything at the time paint a picture of a heartbreaking tragedy that was ultimately avoidable.
22/06/18 Soumya Rao/Scroll
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