Air India Flight 301
Encyclopedia
Narita International Airport
is an international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is located east of Tokyo Station and east-southeast of Narita Station in the city of Narita, and the adjacent town of Shibayama....
killed two baggage handler
Baggage handler
In the airline industry, a baggage handler is a person who loads and unloads baggage , and other cargo for transport via aircraft...
s, and injured four. The bomb in that bag was intended for Air India Flight 301 with 177 passengers and crew on board, bound for Bangkok International Airport
Suvarnabhumi Airport
Suvarnabhumi Airport , also known as Bangkok International Airport, is an international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. It was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September...
.
Bombing
Fifty-five minutes later, at 08:13 Irish time, Air India Flight 182Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...
exploded mid-air and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
off the west coast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, killing 329 people. The incidents are believed to be related, and are connected to the Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
separatist group operating in Canada known as the Babbar Khalsa
Babbar Khalsa
Babbar Khalsa , also known as Babbar Khalsa International , is a Sikh armed organisation based in India. Many consider the Babbar Khalsa a Resistance movement, and it played a prominent role in the Punjab insurgency. Babbar Khalsa International was created in 1978, after a number of Sikhs were...
. It is also believed that the Narita bomb detonated an hour ahead of schedule because the terrorists were unaware that while Canada uses daylight saving time
Daylight saving time
Daylight saving time —also summer time in several countries including in British English and European official terminology —is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less...
, Japan does not.
The only man ever convicted of any involvement in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. He received a ten-year sentence of two counts of manslaughter and four explosives charges after being found gulity in a Vancouver court room in May 1991. In 2003, weeks before the start of the Air India Trial, Reyat cut a deal with prosecutors. In exchange for pleading gulity to manslaughter in the Flight 182 bombing, he was sentenced to five years in prison and was to testify against the two other men tried in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
for these incidents, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri. They were found not guilty by Justice Ian Josephson as prosecutors had not been able to meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As part of their verdict Justice Josephson said this about Reyat's testimony at their trial:
Even the most sympathetic of listeners could only conclude, as do I, that his evidence was patently and pathetically fabricated in an attempt to minimize his involvement in his crime to an extreme degree, while refusing to reveal relevant information he clearly possesses. His hollow expression of remorse for his crime must have been a bitter pill for the families of the victims.
In 2006 Crown Counsel in British Columbia announced they would be charging Inderjit Singh Reyat with perjury based upon his testimony at the Air India Trial. It is alleged that he committed perjury 27 times during his testimony.
Timeline of the Incident
On June 22, 1985, the bags of a passenger named L. Singh were checked in at VancouverVancouver International Airport
Vancouver International Airport is located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, about from Downtown Vancouver. In 2010 it was the second busiest airport in Canada by aircraft movements and passengers , behind Toronto Pearson International Airport, with non-stop flights daily to...
for Canadian Pacific Airlines
Canadian Pacific Airlines
Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986...
(CP Air) 003 to New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, Japan, near Tokyo. This bag was interlined to Air India Flight 301 leaving for Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. L. Singh was assigned seat 38H.
At 2037 GMT, CP Air Flight 003 (named Empress of Australia), departed Vancouver without L. Singh on board.
At 0541 GMT (now June 23), CP Air 003 arrived in Tokyo Narita 14 minutes early.
At 0619 GMT, a piece of luggage that had come from CP Air 3 exploded as it was being transferred to Air India Flight 301; the explosion killed two Japanese baggage handlers (Hideo Asano and Hideharu Koda) in Narita Airport and injured four other people.
At 0714 GMT, Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...
exploded in mid-air off the coast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, killing all 329 people on board with no surviours. Further investigation connects the bombing of the Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
with the bombing at Narita.
At 0805 GMT, Air India Flight 301 left Narita and arrived in Thailand unscathed and with no incidents.
February, 1988 – Inderjit Singh Reyat is arrested by West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(near Birmingham, England).
December 8, 1989 – The British government agrees to extradite Reyat to Canada following a lengthy court battle and trial.
May 10, 1991 – Inderjit Singh Reyat receives a stiff ten-year sentence after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter terms and four explosives charges relating to the Narita Airport bombing that happened 6 years ago.