'Series of errors' led to Air India bombing

Canadian authorities should have known an Air India flight in 1985 was a likely terrorist target, a public inquiry has concluded.

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 killed 329 people in one of the world’s deadliest terrorist attacks and is the largest case of mass murder in Canadian history.

Former Supreme Court Justice John Major said today a cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of Canada’s police and security forces to prevent the atrocity.

No one has ever been convicted over the attack, although one man pleaded guilty to a peripheral role in a second bombing at Tokyo’s Narita airport. The inquiry did not have a mandate to identify the perpetrators of the crime.

The Air India flight from Montreal to London, originating in Vancouver, exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23 1985.