Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is located 12 km (7.5 mi) from Downtown Vancouver. YVR is the second busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic, behind Toronto Pearson International Airport in Ontario. As a trans-Pacific hub, the airport has more direct flights to China than any other airport in North America or Europe. It is a hub for Air Canada and WestJet. Vancouver International Airport is one of eight Canadian airports that have US Border Pre-clearance facilities. It is also one of the few major international airports to have a terminal for scheduled float planes.
Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, it served domestic Canadian as well as international routes until it was purchased by Pacific Western Airlines and absorbed into Canadian Airlines International.
Philippine Airlines Flight 434, sometimes referred to as PAL434 or PR434, was a scheduled flight on December 11, 1994, from Manila to Tokyo with a quick stopover in Cebu on a Boeing 747-283B that was seriously damaged by a bomb, killing one passenger and damaging vital control systems, although the plane was in a repairable state. The incident was a test run of the unsuccessful Bojinka terrorist attacks. The Boeing 747 was flying the second leg of a route from Mactan–Cebu International Airport in Cebu, Philippines to Narita International Airport, in Tokyo, Japan. After the bomb detonated, 58-year-old veteran pilot Captain Eduardo "Ed" Reyes was able to land the aircraft, saving it and the remaining passengers and crew.
Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Mumbai route, that on 23 June 1985, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean as a result of an explosion from a bomb planted by Canadian Sikh terrorists. It was operated using a Boeing 747-237B registered VT-EFO. The incident happened en route from Montreal to London at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 m). The remnants of the aircraft fell into the sea approximately 190 kilometres off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens, and 22 Indian citizens. The bombing of Air India Flight 182 is the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history, the deadliest aviation incident in the history of Air India and was the world's deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the September 11 attacks in 2001. The mastermind behind the bombing was believed to be Inderjit Singh Reyat, a dual British-Canadian national, who pleaded guilty in 2003 and Talwinder Singh Parmar, a Canadian Sikh separatist leader, who was one of the key individuals associated with the militant group Babbar Khalsa.
Babbar Khalsa also known as Babbar Khalsa International, is a Khalistani militant organisation that aims to create an independent nation-state of Khalistan in the Punjab region of South Asia. It has used armed attacks, assassinations and bombings in aid of that goal, and is deemed to be a terrorist entity by various governments. Besides India, it operates in North America and Europe, including Scandinavia.
Duncan is a city on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is the smallest city by area in Canada. It was incorporated in 1912.
Talwinder Singh Parmar was a Sikh militant and the mastermind of the 1985 Air India Flight 182 bombing, which killed 329 people. It was the worst single incident of aviation terrorism in history until the September 11 attacks in the United States. In addition, another bomb was meant to explode aboard Air India Flight 301 in Japan the same day, but it exploded while the plane was still grounded, killing two people. Parmar was also the founder, leader, and Jathedar of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), better known as Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant group involved in the Khalistan movement.
Inderjit Singh can refer to:
Tara Singh Hayer was an Indian-Canadian newspaper publisher and editor who was murdered after his outspoken criticism of fundamentalist violence and terrorism. In particular, he was a key witness in the trial of the Air India Flight 182 bombing.
Sukhminder "Sukh" Singh Dhaliwal is a Canadian businessman and politician, who has served as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Surrey—Newton since 2015. He was previously the Member of Parliament for Newton—North Delta from 2006 to 2011.
Santokh Singh Bagga was a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) informant who helped with the investigation of the 1985 Air India bombing.
Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada is an investigative journalism book written by Canadian reporters Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew. The authors define a "soft target" as "an espionage term used for any country, institution or group of people very easy to penetrate and manipulate for subversive purposes" and argue that the Canadian Sikh community was a soft target of a covert operation by the Indian government during the 1980s. The book also makes a claim that Indian intelligence agencies not only penetrated the Sikh community in order to discredit them worldwide and halt the momentum of the demand of an independent Sikh state, but also manipulated the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
The International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) is a proscribed organisation that aims to establish an independent homeland for the Sikhs called Khalistan. It is banned as a terrorist organisation under Australian, Japanese, Indian, Canadian and American counter-terrorism legislation. The Government of India has declared it a terrorist organisation. While banned, the organization continues to receive financial support from many Sikh people based in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Lakhbir Singh Rode was an Indian Khalistani separatist and the nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 was a scheduled domestic flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, via Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Watson Lake on July 8, 1965. The Douglas DC-6B plane crashed near 100 Mile House, British Columbia, taking the lives of all 52 aboard. An inquest determined that the explosion was the result of a bomb, but the crime remains unsolved.
A chief engineer for the Vancouver School Board, Hardial Singh Johal was an avid follower of Talwinder Singh Parmar, and thus closely eyed in the investigation following the bombing of Air India Flight 182. He was alleged to have stored the suitcase explosives in the basement of a Vancouver school, and to have purchased the tickets for the flights on which the bombs were placed.
Narita International Airport — also known as Tokyo-Narita International Airport or simply Narita Airport, formerly and originally known as New Tokyo International Airport — is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport (HND). It is about 60 km (37 mi) east of central Tokyo in Narita, Chiba. The facility, since July 2019, covers 1,137 hectares of land and construction to expand to nearly 2,300 ha is under way.
World Sikh Organization (WSO) is a Sikh religious and non-profit organization whose 1984 founding goal was "to provide an effective, credible voice to represent Sikh interests on the world stage", after Operation Blue Star. Its stated goal is "to promote and protect the interests of the Sikh Diaspora", and "promote and advocate for" human rights. Tejinder Singh Sidhu currently serves as President of the organization.
The bombings of Air India Flight 182 and the Narita Airport launched several investigations, inquiries and trials. The trial of Malik and Bagri is known as the Air India Trial; events relating to the incident are listed below in chronological order.
I began by describing the horrific nature of these cruel acts of terrorism, acts which cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite what appear to have been the best and most earnest of efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard.
Air India 182 is a 2008 documentary directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, and produced by David York. It is about the Air India Flight 182 bombing in 1985. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned the film, which originally had the preliminary title Flight 182. Gunarsson stated that he hoped the film would cause Canadians to contemplate domestic terrorism.
