OTTAWA, June 17 Canadian security agencies were unprepared in 1985 to prevent the bombing of Air India Flight 182 and still must be reformed, a probe of the “largest mass murder in Canadian history” concluded on Thursday.

“This was the largest mass murder in Canadian history,” John Major, head of a commission of inquiry into the disaster, told a press conference.

“A cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of police and security forces to prevent this atrocity,” he said.

“Various institutions and organisations did not fulfil their responsibilities.”

He pointed specifically to failings by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the then nascent Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

A total of 329 passengers and crew died when Air India Flight 182 en route from Canada exploded in mid-air off the coast of Ireland.

Two baggage handlers at Japan's Narita airport were also killed in the blast of a second suitcase bomb tied to the plot.

Prosecutors argued that Canadian Sikh extremists had sought to bring down Air India jets in retaliation for the Indian government's June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person ever convicted in the bombing, served more than 15 years in prison for manslaughter and making the bombs responsible for the Narita airport blast and the downing of Flight 182 — the second-worst airline attack in history, behind the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Reyat was released on bail in July 2008 to await trial for perjury.

Major said “error, incompetence, and inattention” occurred before the Air India flight and in the aftermath during the investigation and legal proceedings.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP were still focused on the threat of airline hijackings, not terrorism, and engaged in “turf wars” instead of sharing information.

The government argued before the commission, “That was then, this is now,” suggesting security deficiencies have been rectified.

But Major said, “The commission rejects that position.”—AFP