A MINUTE'S silence marked the 12th anniversary of one of the world's worst air disasters yesterday morning. The brief ceremony was held at precisely 13 minutes past eight - the time at which Air India's Flight 182 was blown out of the sky about 110 miles south of the Cork coast.
Several families en route from Canada to Bombay were among the 329 passengers and crew who lost their lives from what the authorities believe was a terrorist bomb.
In one of the largest rescue and salvage missions organised off the Irish coast, only 133 bodies were recovered from the sea and of those only 38 were positively identified.
A team from the Canadian Mounted Police visited Cork last week with an Air India representative to continue the 12 year investigation into what happened on board the jumbo jet, which had been due to touch down at London Heathrow less than 20 minutes later.
A full time task force is still working on the disaster at Vancouver police headquarters. They now believe a passenger on board brought the bomb with him, possibly in his hand luggage. The passenger appeared to have bought tickets for two separate flights on the day he took Flight 182 at Montreal Airport.
The investigators interviewed members of the medical teams in Cork University Hospital, where the recovered bodies were taken, and looked again at postmortem records on the recovered bodies while liaising with gardai in Bishopstown, Cork. They travelled to Dublin last Friday and were due in London today to continue their work.
The Vancouver Crown Council office confirmed the team was preparing a case for court but would not say if it was close to charging anybody with the deaths of those on the Air India flight.
"We cannot speculate at this stage, it is still too early to say if we are close to a break through," said a spokesperson.
The Air India Victims' Relatives Association has been keeping pressure on the Canadian authorities to solve the mystery.
A number of relatives, together with Mr John Sullivan, from the Canadian embassy, representatives of the Indian embassy and of Cork County Council and Cork Corporation were at the brief ceremony at Ahachista, chosen by relatives as being the closest spot on land to the site of the tragedy.
A sun dial, made by the Cork sculptor, Ken Thompson, indicates the time of the explosion, while the names of the dead are carved on a stone memorial nearby.