Taoiseach to attend event marking 40th anniversary of Air India disaster in Cork

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to attend a commemoration to mark 40 years since the Air India disaster in West Cork.

In June 1985, Air India Flight 182 was brought down off the coast of Cork in what was the worst aviation disaster in Irish and Canadian history.

Some 329 people were killed, including 29 families, the majority of whom were Canadians of Indian descent.

The plane crashed as a result of a terrorist attack, and was the worst aviation act of terrorism until the September 11 attacks.

An annual commemoration is held at the Ahakista Memorial in Cork.

At the 20th commemoration of the disaster, Paul Martin became the first Canadian prime minister to visit the memorial.

As Taoiseach Mr Martin offered his condolences to the families of those killed after an Air India plane crashed earlier this month, he drew comparisons between the two tragedies.

“All of us who experienced that had a sense of trauma that people go through when crashes of this kind happen,” he said.

The 2025 Air India flight struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board.

The sole survivor was Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, who said it was “a miracle” he survived.