Relatives remember victims of air disaster

THE daughter of an air hostess killed in the Air India bombing off west Cork in 1985 was among 40 relatives of victims attending the 25th anniversary commemoration ceremony yesterday.

Kriselle Rodricks was 17 months old when she lost her mother, who never returned to the family home in Mumbai following the terrorist attack on Air India flight 82 on the morning of June 23, 1985.

Her father, Christopher Rodricks, said his wife, Elaine, loved her job but he harbours “deep regret” for the day she left.

“My daughter lost her mother and that is so sad. She has no memories of her, only photographs,” he said.

Kriselle, who travelled from New York to the memorial at Ahakista on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula, said there is no replacement for losing a mother.

“I don’t think anything can bring any comfort,” she said.

A minute’s silence was observed at 8.12am to mark the moment a bomb ripped through the baggage compartment of the plane, 290 kilometres off the Cork coast.

Mark Staggs, a worker on board the first cargo ship to arrive at the scene, said recovering bodies was a harrowing experience he would never forget.

“A man apologised to me and then handed me this little bundle. It was the remains of a little baby,” he said.

Some 20 years after the event, Mr Staggs recognised the face of someone’s body he had helped recover from the wreckage in a picture placed at the Ahakista memorial.

It was Sanjay Turlapati, one of two sons aged 11 and 14 lost to parents Padmini and Babu Turlapati, who visit the memorial every year.

They find solace at Ahakista, which she described yesterday as a “magical place”. “It’s sanctuary of unconditional love; it gave me hope back. People here have cared for us and given comfort; it’s given us back our dignity and reaffirmed our faith,” she said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologised to families of the victims yesterday, one week after a Canadian inquiry into the bombing found it could have been prevented but for a “cascading series of errors” by police and other officials.

Prime Minister Harper issued the apology at a memorial in Toronto, a sister memorial that faces the memorial at Ahakista, which looks directly out to sea to where the plane was blown up.

In attendance at yesterday’s ceremony in Cork, Canadian Minister for Immigration Jason Kenney described the families of victims who campaigned for a report into the bombing as “the conscience of a country”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin described the attack as “brutal and senseless”.

“We are honoured by your friendship and offer whatever comfort and solace we can in your time of great sorrow. You will always be welcome here,” he said.