40 years ago, Susheel Gupta’s mother was killed in the Air India bombing

Air India Flight 182 was blown up over the Atlantic Ocean on 23 June 1985, killing all 329 passengers and crew, most of whom were Canadian citizens.

Susheel Gupta was only 12 years old when his mom died in what has become known as the Air India bombing.

June 23, 2025, marks 40 years since the bombing.

Gupta travelled to Ireland with his father a few days after the bombing.

“I think if you were to talk to all of the victims’ family members, one thing that they will all say is we were treated with the utmost dignity, respect, compassion by everyone that we interacted with in Ireland, be it police officials, the Garda, hospital nurses and just ordinary citizens,” Gupta, who is now the chair of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, told Global News.

Air India Flight 182 was blown up over the Atlantic Ocean on 23 June 1985, killing all 329 passengers and crew, most of whom were Canadian citizens.

The flight had departed from Montreal, en route to India, when it exploded and crashed off the coast of Ireland. Around the same time, on board a second aircraft that had departed Canada, a suitcase transiting through Japan’s Narita Airport exploded, killing two baggage handlers.

The Air India bombing is the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history.

Gupta said he remembers two Irish citizens giving him and his father the raincoats off their backs when it was raining one day during their visit.