Sikh extremists have tried and succeeded in blowing up the Air India Flight 182, as a reaction after a period of extreme tension between Sikh and Hindu communities.
Air India Boeing 747-237B VT-EFO, also called Emperor Kanishka, which operated Flight 182 on the eastern route connecting India to Canada, was flying at 9449 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. Kanishka was to land at London's Heathrow airport at 8:30am. The plane was late by 1 hour and 45 minutes due to a stop in Toronto to mount a spare engine - a special snap point – for the third position of the engine, located inside, under the left wing.
At 7:05am GMT, Flight 182 contacted the air traffic control tower at Shannon. The position of the airplane was 51 degrees N, 15 degrees W, flying at an altitude of 9300m and in a moderate wind speed of 962 km/h. Everything was normal at that point. However, at 07:14:01am GMT, the tower operators of Shannon heard in headphones a short click of the transmission button. In that second Flight 182 suddenly disappeared from the radar screen.
In the following days, 5% of the total structure of the aircraft, and also 131 human bodies have been recovered by rescue vessels and taken to the coordination center of the accident founded in Cork. The bomb killed all 22 crew and 307 passengers. 198 bodies were lost at sea. British rescue ship Gardline Locator, equipped with a sophisticated sonar, and the French cable-laying vessel, Leon Thevenin, equipped with a robot-submarine, managed to recover Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). They had only 30 days before the batteries mounted on the acoustic beacon equipment expired. Both recording systems were recovered from the seabed on July 10th.
The Boeing 747-237B VT-EFO aircraft was delivered to Air India in June 1978. The plane had lost all rear fuselage and tail in the deflagration that took place on the 23rd of June 1985. About half of the remains of the aircraft were scattered on the surface of the water. The larger and heavier sections of the plane sank very fast, at a depth of 2042m.
Broken
On July 16, the boxes CVR and FDR were examined by a team of aircraft safety experts reunited in Bombay. The results were lugubrious. At exactly 7:13:01 pm, both systems recording stopped suddenly. This could only mean that all electrical compartment of the Flight 182 was destroyed completely and instantaneously and the most likely cause was a bomb.
Some experts believed the area behind the front of the aircraft to be the site of the explosion, because of the sudden loss of power supply and the fact that the front door for loading luggage was found detached.
But in Canada, the RCMP-led investigations have brought to light strong evidence of a terrorist attack staged by members of the Sikh. Starting on 16th of June, many reservations were made under the name Singh, to determine the acceptance of luggage on board of the Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 003 and Air India Flight 182. The name Singh (meaning "lion") is common to all Sikh (even the two captains on board the Kanishka aircraft were named like that), but only two of the three booked by that name had the initials "L" and "A" and fitted the description of Lal Singh and Ammand Singh, both suspected by the FBI for the assassination attempt on Rajiv Gandhi (the sixt Prime Minister of India, 1984–1989), on his visit in Washington in the summer of 1985. The security system, which appeared effective, involved subjecting the passengers to a double security check. Metal detectors were used to scan for weapons and all hand luggages were controlled. Suitcases were individually X-rayed and if suspicious items were discovered, a portable bomb detector could be used to uncover explosives. Three bags containing suspicious packages had been stopped in Montreal, but a later inspection revealed them to be safe. Only an iron, a radio and a hair dryer were found. Air Canada, as Air India's handling agent, used a recommended passenger numbering system which ensured that all who had checked in boarded the aircraft. The terrorists have managed to mess up the system for checking passengers by booking on the flights linked to Flight 182, so their luggages were transferred on board without their physical presence.
Terrorist responsibility
In Japan, forensic experts found that the bomb was hidden in a Sanyo radio AM / FM with FMT 611K series. All the 2,000 units of that kind had been shipped from Sanyo factory to be sold in Vancouver in 1979. Other researches completed by RCMP determined that one of these outdated models was sold to two Sikh members in early June, just three weeks before the explosion. Because it was an obsolete model, the radio cases were large enough to house explosives and a trigger timer.
After an extraordinary rescue exercise held in October, in which 20 important pieces were recovered from the wreckage, they have found other evidence sustaining the bomb explosion theory. Among the debris they found burned chair cushions, deformed chair legs and a section of the cabin floor that had the shape of a dome.
In January 1986, a report made by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada states that “There is sufficient evidence indicating that the initial event was an explosion ... in the front luggage compartment. This evidence is not decisive. However, the evidence does not lead to a different conclusion.”
Air India Boeing 747-237B VT-EFO, also called Emperor Kanishka, which operated Flight 182 on the eastern route connecting India to Canada, was flying at 9449 meters above the Atlantic Ocean. Kanishka was to land at London's Heathrow airport at 8:30am. The plane was late by 1 hour and 45 minutes due to a stop in Toronto to mount a spare engine - a special snap point – for the third position of the engine, located inside, under the left wing.
At 7:05am GMT, Flight 182 contacted the air traffic control tower at Shannon. The position of the airplane was 51 degrees N, 15 degrees W, flying at an altitude of 9300m and in a moderate wind speed of 962 km/h. Everything was normal at that point. However, at 07:14:01am GMT, the tower operators of Shannon heard in headphones a short click of the transmission button. In that second Flight 182 suddenly disappeared from the radar screen.
In the following days, 5% of the total structure of the aircraft, and also 131 human bodies have been recovered by rescue vessels and taken to the coordination center of the accident founded in Cork. The bomb killed all 22 crew and 307 passengers. 198 bodies were lost at sea. British rescue ship Gardline Locator, equipped with a sophisticated sonar, and the French cable-laying vessel, Leon Thevenin, equipped with a robot-submarine, managed to recover Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). They had only 30 days before the batteries mounted on the acoustic beacon equipment expired. Both recording systems were recovered from the seabed on July 10th.
The Boeing 747-237B VT-EFO aircraft was delivered to Air India in June 1978. The plane had lost all rear fuselage and tail in the deflagration that took place on the 23rd of June 1985. About half of the remains of the aircraft were scattered on the surface of the water. The larger and heavier sections of the plane sank very fast, at a depth of 2042m.
Broken
On July 16, the boxes CVR and FDR were examined by a team of aircraft safety experts reunited in Bombay. The results were lugubrious. At exactly 7:13:01 pm, both systems recording stopped suddenly. This could only mean that all electrical compartment of the Flight 182 was destroyed completely and instantaneously and the most likely cause was a bomb.
Some experts believed the area behind the front of the aircraft to be the site of the explosion, because of the sudden loss of power supply and the fact that the front door for loading luggage was found detached.
But in Canada, the RCMP-led investigations have brought to light strong evidence of a terrorist attack staged by members of the Sikh. Starting on 16th of June, many reservations were made under the name Singh, to determine the acceptance of luggage on board of the Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 003 and Air India Flight 182. The name Singh (meaning "lion") is common to all Sikh (even the two captains on board the Kanishka aircraft were named like that), but only two of the three booked by that name had the initials "L" and "A" and fitted the description of Lal Singh and Ammand Singh, both suspected by the FBI for the assassination attempt on Rajiv Gandhi (the sixt Prime Minister of India, 1984–1989), on his visit in Washington in the summer of 1985. The security system, which appeared effective, involved subjecting the passengers to a double security check. Metal detectors were used to scan for weapons and all hand luggages were controlled. Suitcases were individually X-rayed and if suspicious items were discovered, a portable bomb detector could be used to uncover explosives. Three bags containing suspicious packages had been stopped in Montreal, but a later inspection revealed them to be safe. Only an iron, a radio and a hair dryer were found. Air Canada, as Air India's handling agent, used a recommended passenger numbering system which ensured that all who had checked in boarded the aircraft. The terrorists have managed to mess up the system for checking passengers by booking on the flights linked to Flight 182, so their luggages were transferred on board without their physical presence.
Terrorist responsibility
In Japan, forensic experts found that the bomb was hidden in a Sanyo radio AM / FM with FMT 611K series. All the 2,000 units of that kind had been shipped from Sanyo factory to be sold in Vancouver in 1979. Other researches completed by RCMP determined that one of these outdated models was sold to two Sikh members in early June, just three weeks before the explosion. Because it was an obsolete model, the radio cases were large enough to house explosives and a trigger timer.
After an extraordinary rescue exercise held in October, in which 20 important pieces were recovered from the wreckage, they have found other evidence sustaining the bomb explosion theory. Among the debris they found burned chair cushions, deformed chair legs and a section of the cabin floor that had the shape of a dome.
In January 1986, a report made by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada states that “There is sufficient evidence indicating that the initial event was an explosion ... in the front luggage compartment. This evidence is not decisive. However, the evidence does not lead to a different conclusion.”
