Air India Kanishka Flight 182 was blown off mid-air on this day in 1985. Anil Singh Hanse, the son of the pilot, talks to The Canadian Bazaar about that day
The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: As relatives of the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing remembered their loved ones on the 35th anniversary of the tragedy today, the son of the pilot of the ill-fated plane said Canada has let them down by not punishing the guilty.
“PM Trudeau must not just send a tweet on this day. He must acknowledge the trauma and what we have experienced. There will be no closure until the perpetrators are retried and sentenced,” said Anil Singh Hanse, whose father Narendra Singh Hanse was the commander of the Kanishka Flight 182 to Delhi from Montreal which was blown off mid-air off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985, by a bomb planted by Vancouver-based Khalistani radicals to avenge the Indian army action at the Golden Temple in June 1984.
All 329 people abroad died in the Air India Kanishka bombing.
Only one person – Inderjit Singh Reyat – was jailed for the second worst aviation disaster after 9/11. Two other main accused – Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri – were acquitted.
“My dad was 57 at that time. This painful day is etched my memory and feelings remain the same even after 35 years. It feels like yesterday,” Anil Singh Hanse, whose father Narendra Singh Hanse was the commander of Flight 182, told IANS.
He said, “The bombing was a political issue and Canadian politicians do not want to upset the vote bank. That’s why this case was never taken seriously. Some politicians and law enforcement officers still attend events organized by the alleged perpetrators.”
He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should do more than just issue statements on the Air India Kanishka bombing anniversary and seriously take up the recommendations from the inquiry in 2010.
“India too could have done much more in supporting its citizens by working closely with Canada to solve the crime as it was just not a Canadian issue,” Hanse said.
Recalling the tragic day, he said, “When the Air India Kanishka flight started from Mumbai to Canada, I travelled with my father till Delhi as I had to catch a flight to London from Delhi. I was in Aberdeen in Scotland on a diving assignment with an offshore oil rig on that day.
“I was staying at a bed and breakfast with other divers. I had to catch a helicopter at 9 am to leave for the offshore rig when this news broke. As I was having my breakfast, one of the American divers who was listening to news on radio told me that an Air India flight had crashed.”
He said, “I was dazed. My mind went blank. Frantically, I started calling Air India to find out as I knew my dad was on the plane, but they didn’t know what to say… they were in total chaos. I caught a flight to London later in the day. At the Air India office at Heathrow, the staff were totally overwhelmed. Everybody was living through a nightmare.”
Air India put them up in hotels in London for three to four days before taking the families to Cork in Ireland where the bodies of some of the victims were brought, he recalled.
“Air India organized our air tickets and I went to Delhi where we performed a havan for my father at a temple in Greater Kailash. Then we performed ceremonies in Mumbai.”
