World Notes Disasters

Indian and Canadian authorities probing last June's crash of Air India Flight 182 into the North Atlantic off the coast of Ireland have proceeded with glacial deliberation. India has never officially confirmed what many have suspected all along: that the third-worst aviation accident in history, which took the lives of all 307 passengers and 22 crew members, was the result of a bomb planted in the aircraft's luggage compartment. In spite of their tight- lipped treatment of the case, investigators know much more than they are letting on. Or at least so says Canadian Journalist Salim Jiwa, 34, in a new book, The Death of Air India Flight 182.

Jiwa contends that those responsible for the crash are a cabal of Vancouver- based Sikh extremists. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, says Jiwa, have identified at least a dozen people responsible for the explosion and are only tying up loose ends before moving in.