Air India bombing first responders recall the horrors of June 23, 1985

Ottawa Citizen

4 days ago

BANTRY, Ireland — Even 40 years after the Air India bombing, the horror of being handed a dead baby pulled from the sea is seared into Mark Stagg's memory.
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The child, who had been aboard Air India Flight 182 when a B.C.-made bomb exploded on June 23, 1985, looked perfect, Stagg says.
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'It was dressed. It just looked like it was asleep,' he recalled here. 'I remember touching the baby's face against my face. It was so cold.'
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He was a young third officer on the Laurentian Forest, a merchant vessel en route from Canada to Dublin with a load of newsprint on that terrible day.
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It was a grey, drizzly morning when the radio call came in. A plane was missing, a Boeing 747, 'with 329 souls on board,' Stagg said.
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Their ship was first to the area, but they couldn't see much. Stagg's lookout on the bridge, Daniel Brown, spotted something orange floating. They lowered a lifeboat to get closer. It was an uninflated escape slide.
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A Royal Air Force Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft flew over and messaged them about the scope of the disaster — the debris was spread over 285 square kilometres, said Stagg.
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The jet dropped smoke markers where they could see bodies and the Laurentian Forest crew got to work. They were soon joined by British army and navy helicopters, an Irish navy ship, Spanish fishing trawlers, the Valentia lifeboat from County Kerry. Even a U.S. military helicopter helped.
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Hundreds risked their lives to try to recover the Air India victims, 268 of whom were Canadian. In the end, 132 of the victims were found.
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At the time they had no idea that the plane had been targeted by B.C.'s Babbar Khalsa separatist group to send the Indian government a message. They didn't know about a second bomb that went off at Tokyo's Narita Airport 54 minutes earlier, killing two baggage handlers. And they didn't know that some of them would later testify at a criminal trial in Vancouver that would end in acquittals or at the public inquiry that followed.
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Stagg now makes the annual pilgrimage from his home in Hampshire, England, to be with victims' relatives at the annual Air India memorial service. He finds peace here and is grateful for the love the families have shown all those who tried to save their loved ones.
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For 12 hours straight that Sunday, Stagg stayed on deck and received bodies that helicopter winchmen had picked up. None of them could focus on the grisly scene — the ocean full of bodies and plane wreckage.