Air India Flight 182 - Investigations

Investigations

Within hours, Canada's Indian community was soon a focus of attention both as victims and hints that officials were investigating connections to the Sikh separatists who had threatened and committed acts of violence in retaliation against Hindus. In the subsequent worldwide investigations over six years, many threads of the plot were uncovered. Based on recovery of wreckage and bodies from the surface, it was decided to retrieve wreckage and recorders from the bottom of the sea. That voice and flight recorders were cut out at the same time, and damage to parts recovered from the forward cargo bay consistent with a blast established that it was probably a bomb near the forward cargo hold that brought the plane down suddenly. The flight was also soon linked to the earlier bombing in Japan which had also originated from Vancouver, tickets for both flights had been purchased by the same person, and in both cases the planes were carrying bags without the passenger who checked them in.

No bomb parts were recovered from the ocean, but investigations of the blast at Tokyo established that the bomb had been placed in a Sanyo stereo tuner of a series that had been shipped to Vancouver in Canada. The RCMP assigned no less than 135 officers to check every store that could have sold Sanyo tuners, leading to the discovery of a recent sale to mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat in his hometown of Duncan B.C. RCMP contacted the CSIS intelligence agency and found they were already investigating the Sikh activists and found out they had already had wiretaps and had observed Reyat and Parmar at the test blast near Duncan, and the recovery of blasting cap shunts and a paper bundle wrapper from a blasting cap A search recovered the receipt for a Sanyo Tuner Model FMT-611K with invoice with his name and phone number, along with sales of other bomb components. It was not until January 1986 that Canadian investigators at the Canadian Aviation Safety Board concluded that a bomb explosion in the forward cargo hold had downed the airliner. On 26 February 1986, Supreme Court Judge Kirpal of India presented an Inquiry report based on investigation conducted by H.S. Khola (Khola Report). The report also concluded that a bomb originating in Canada brought down the Air India flight.

Based on observations, wiretaps, searches and arrests of persons believed to be participants, the bombing was determined to be the joint project of at least two Sikh terrorist groups with extensive membership in Canada, United States, England and India. Their anger had been sparked by the June 1984 assault on the Golden Temple by the Government of India.