The RCMP’s former head of airport security was not told that a group of Sikhs were plotting a suicide attack on Air India leaving Montreal on June 16, 1984, the inquiry into the terrorism attack heard Monday.
Joe MacDonald said he would have remembered something as specific as a suicide plot if he had been made aware of it around the time that another RCMP officer made a note about the threat for his file.
MacDonald was shown a June 12, 1984 memo by RCMP Cpl.
Dan Bangs laying out details of the threat, which Bangs heard about from an External Affairs official, who was called by the Ministry of Transport.
“(Air India) station manager advised MoT that 20 Sikhs planning suicide attack on Air India at Mirabel on Saturday 84/06/16,” the memo, marked secret, said. “Air India taking precautions and in fact negotiated with (blanked out) for inspection of luggage.
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MacDonald said if he had known of the information, he certainly would have passed it on to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
“I certainly didn’t see any reference to this,” MacDonald said.
He conceded to Air India inquiry lawyer Anil Kapoor that not all the threats made against the airline in the months before the June 23, 1985 bombing were shared between all the relevant law enforcement agencies and individuals.
And he said Air India received more threats than any other airline operating in Canada at the time.
The inquiry has already heard that the only other airline that had extremely high security was Israel’s El Al.
Asked Kapoor: “In terms of the threats to airlines - let’s mark it June 1984 to end June 1985 - thinking back, was Air India more of the subject matter of threats than any other airline.
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“There was probably more information on Air India, yes,” MacDonald, now retired, told inquiry head John Major. “There were only two that were of any concern at the time. You weren’t getting them on Air Canada, Westjet and what not.
It was a small area really.”
An Air India telex from May 1985 reiterated concerns about threats to the airline.
“Hand baggage should be carefully checked.
Items like transistors, two-in-one cameras, cakes, tinned items of food, etc. should not - repeat not - be allowed until and unless checking staff fully satisfied about their contents,” the telex said. “Airlines must keep utmost vigilance on registered baggage.
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The bomb that brought down Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985 was housed in a stereo tuner and packed into a suitcase.
MacDonald said some of the Air India telexes and memos laying out threats were really more for the airline’s own baggage screeners, who worked for Burns Security, and not for police.
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