A REPORT into the Air India flight tragedy in which 329 people died off the Cork coast in 1985 concluded that authorities should have known the flight was a likely terrorist target.
The report into the bombing of flight 182 comes as families of victims gather in west Cork ahead of its 25th anniversary. Dignitaries from India, Ireland and Canada are set to gather at Ahakista on Sheep’s Head peninsula on Wednesday for a ceremony commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack.
The flight was en route from Montreal in Canada to Mumbai in India when a bomb exploded in the cargo hold, killing 329 passengers and crew on board. The wreckage of the plane was located 123 miles off the coast of Cork.
In a report by Canadian authorities published this week, former supreme court justice John Major said the families of victims should be compensated, as they were often treated as adversaries.
The report outlined a series of errors that had contributed to the failure of Canada’s police and security forces to prevent the atrocity.
“The level of error, incompetence and inattention which took place before the flight was sadly mirrored in many ways for many years, in how authorities, governments and institutions dealt with the aftermath of the murder of so many innocents,” said Mr Major.
The attacks were blamed on Sikh militants who, prosecutors said, sought revenge for a deadly 1984 raid by Indian forces on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, one of the holiest sites of their religion.
A minute’s silence will be observed at 8.12am on Wednesday at the commemoration.