Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Too expensive to delay Air India flight, witness to
testify
Canada - The Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
A witness at the Air India inquiry is
expected to testify Wednesday that airline officials said it would cost too much
to delay the takeoff of Flight 182 in order to check the bags, CBC News has
learned.
The flight had been cleared for takeoff from Mirabel airport in
Montreal in June 1985 even though the baggage screening system at Toronto's
Pearson airport had broken down and a bomb-sniffing dog and his handler were
still on their way.
Flight 182 stopped in Montreal after leaving Toronto,
en route to London's Heathrow Airport and then India. The explosives — allegedly
planted by Sikh extremists in luggage that was loaded in Vancouver — exploded
off the west coast of Ireland and killed 329 people on board, mostly
Canadians.
No RCMP bomb-sniffing dog was on duty at Toronto's airport
because all of the force's dogs and their handlers were at a course, the inquiry
heard Tuesday.
No hand searches were conducted. In addition, an X-ray
machine broke down and Burns Security, the firm hired by Air India to screen its
baggage, had to resort to an electronic sniffer that had failed its initial
explosives-detection test.
Three suspicious suitcases had been pulled
aside during pre-flight screening. But they turned out to be harmless
CBC
News has learned that Daniel Lalonde, a former Burns Security guard at Mirabel,
is expected to testify that holding the plane in Montreal was considered — but
that Air India's representative said it would cost too much.
Gary Clarke,
a former RCMP airport security chief, testified Tuesday that there was no doubt
the threat level at that time was high.
"We all knew that this threat
assessment was high. We knew there was a severe danger," he said.
But
Clarke added that cost is always an issue.
"I mentioned this before that
when an airline is operating, they only make money when the airplane is in the
air," he told the inquiry.
A lawyer for Air India told CBC News Tuesday
that the airline never even considered delaying the flight because she said the
bags were adequately screened.
"Certainly a high-security flight but
there was no specific threat and there was never any intention of holding the
flight in Montreal or having a dog sniff the flight or anything other than the
three suspicious bags," Carol McCall said.
Air India's position is that
the bags were checked with hand-held bomb sniffers when the X-ray machine broke
down.
On the Web:
Calculating the Value of Human Life Just One
Month Before 9/11
http://www.californiaaviation.org/weblog/2005/11/calculating-value-of-human-life-just