‘We are visiting our second son… this is his home now’
IN circles seven deep around the sundial, people from Ireland, India and Canada gathered to remember those who perished off the south west coast when a terrorist’s bomb exploded on board Air India Flight 182 on June 23rd 1985.
Such was the severity of the wind coming in off the Atlantic on Monday morning, it looked as if people had gathered in the manner of penguins, protecting those at the centre, shielding them from the elements.
As metaphors go, it describes perfectly what the families of the 329 victims found in West Cork in the days, months, years, and indeed the four decades since the tragedy occurred.
Here, they found an extended family, a community, and a local Council who offered them shelter and support before creating a special memorial garden, a wall of commemoration, and a sundial that fixed in bronze the time the lives of the 329 passengers were ended.
Lakshminarayana Turlapti, better known locally as Babu, and his wife Dr Padmini Turlapti, lost their only two sons Sanjay (14) and Deepak (11) in the disaster.
‘The remains of our eldest son were recovered, but our youngest son is still in Irish waters,’ said Babu, who described how coming to Ahakista gives him and his wife peace of mind.
‘We feel that we are visiting our second son, that this is his home. That’s what makes us come every year. We also come for the strength we get from the Irish people.
‘I have always felt that the silver lining in this tragedy for us is that the plane fell in Irish waters, where there is so much kindness and compassion,’ he added.
The Kanishka jumbo jet was on route from Montreal in Canada, via London, to Delhi in India when a bomb in the luggage hold exploded at 31,000ft over Cork’s south west coast.
Political leaders, ministers and ambassadors from Ireland, India and Canada attended the 40th anniversary. Canada also sent their Mounties, while fleece jackets carrying the emblems of countless teams of first-responders told another story.
UK-national Mark Stagg, who was the officer on watch on a cargo ship when the plane went down, described the situation they were faced with, 40 years ago to the minute.
He said they received a distress call and they soon learned that 329 souls on board the 182 flight had perished.
Their first visual confirmation of this was the sight of an uninflated escape slide at the edge of 110sq nautical miles of wreckage and debris.
In 1985, he said, they were not trained, nor were they equipped for their role that day, but he saw seafarers from Scotland, England, Ireland, Norway, as well as fishermen from Spain, the RAF, the Royal Navy, the US Airforce and crews from Valencia perform extraordinary acts of bravery.
Sean Ferguson, Assistant Commander, David Teboul and Steve Rhude, Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the memorial service in Ahakista. (Photos: Alison Miles /OSM PHOTO)
‘I witnessed the extraordinary heroism of the crews swimming in an ocean, one-and-a-half miles deep and yet no one was saved,’ said Mark.
‘The events of that day for those on the sea: the trauma, the tragedy and the sadness changed us all, forever.’ He said these memories do not diminish and could lead to dark and lonely days and nights.
But knowing that the seafarers gave of their best; and that those who were found were treated with dignity and such care and such kindness offered some solace, he said.
In discovering Ahakista, and meeting others who were there that day, as well as the families of the deceased, Mark said they all found calm and comfort.
‘There is this community in the south west that wraps you in their warm embrace, offering a feeling of peace and safety. Look around,’ he urged those attending the ceremony, ‘when you feel adrift, remember this is what care, this is what love and humanity looks like.’
Echoes of that bond, forged 40 years ago, were mentioned by each of the speakers, but nature chimed in too: in the minute of silence that was supposed to follow the long and surprisingly loud whistle from the LÉ William Butler Yeats in Dunmanus Bay, a donkey in a field further along the Sheep’s Head Peninsula called out in his own forlorn response, while overhead three Oystercatchers, cried as they endlessly circled the ceremony.
Family members laid wreaths, alongside the county mayor Cllr Joe Carroll (FF), Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Gary Anandasangaree, the Canadian Minister of public safety, Hardeep Singh Puri, a minister from India, representatives from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the naval service, An Garda Síochana, and members of the local community.
The jet explosion and loss of 329 lives, 83 of them children under the age of 13, remains the worst aviation disaster in Irish and Canadian history.
