VANCOUVER, British Columbia: Police know who made bombs that destroyed an Air India jet off the Irish coast and killed two baggage handlers in Tokyo, las summer, according to a book by a local newspaper reporter.

Both bombs originated in Vancouver and were planted by extremists but were intended to explode in the holds of the two 747s while the jumbo jets were on the ground, wrote Vancouver Province reporter Salim Jiwa in the Death of Air India Flight 182,

“The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) know that two bombs were made and they know who made them,” the book states “The man who made the bombs knows that the Mounties know he did it”

Police refused comment on the book. In separate incidents last June 23, all 329 people aboard the Air India Flight 182 died when the Bombay bound flight plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, and a bag being transferred from a CP Air 747 to an Air India flight exploded at the terminal of Narita Airport in Tokyo.

Jiwa claims the RCMP investigation is complete, except for the identification of the two men who checked the suitcase bombs and then missed the ill-fated fights,

“They were probably imported from outside Vancouver just for one day to check in the bags,” the book says, “but the rest of the group of the Dirty Dozen area all in the bag. The ringleaders have been identified and the extremists know that too,

“It’s only a matter of time before Inspector (John) Hoadley and the RCMP members working with him see how many fish are on the hook.”

Publication of the book coincided with a judicial finding in India that a suitcase bomb in the forward cargo hold caused the Flight 182 to crash.

The book says the bomb bag on that flight was not X-rayed while being transferred at Toronto from a CP Air fight from Vancouver because of an equipment failure. Inexperienced personnel checked the bag with a portable bomb detector and heard a beep but did not act because they had been told to listen for a long whistle,

Earlier, a harried CP Air agent in Vancouver had allowed an insistent man to check the bag through to the Air India ‘flight although the man did not have a confirmed reservation on Flight 182.

Jiwa explains that no credible claim of responsibility for the bombings was made because those responsible had intended both ‘bombs to go off on the ground to make a political point against the Indian Government and did not want to kill so many people.

‘The bomb on Flight 182 would have exploded during a London stopover if the plane’s departure from Toronto had not been delayed by a minor technical problem the book said.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 7, 1986