40 years of the Kanishka bombing
Since the terror attack on June 23, 1985, justice and closure continue to elude families of victims of Air India Flight 182
Updated At : 07:45 AM Jun 22, 2025 IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays a wreath at the Air India Memorial in Toronto in 2015. The memorial was unveiled in 2007. PTI
A FEW minutes before disaster struck the Montreal-Bombay Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, co-pilot Capt SS Bhinder remembered that a boy in seat 54 wanted to see the cockpit. Bhinder turned to JS Dinshaw, the Assistant Flight Purser, and told him to bring him “after about 15-20 minutes”. That time never came. After a smooth five hours of flying, with the plane soaring at 31,000 feet, at 7:14 GMT, a loud sound was recorded on all four channels of the Cockpit Voice Recorder. The communication with the ground snapped, and the plane went off the radar.
