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The remains of Air India flight 182 and the reconstruction of the plane the "Kanishka" inside a warehouse at a secret location in Vancouver June 15, 2004.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

Families of crew members who died in the 1985 mid-air bomb explosion aboard an Air India flight have asked for the wreckage to be sent back to India for a memorial to commemorate the tragedy.

"As you are aware that Canada and Ireland have built four memorials and one memorial respectively, but we have none in India,'' the son of pilot Narendra Singh Hanse, wife of co-pilot Satwinder Singh Bhinder and mother of flight attendant Shyla Juju said in a recent letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We do request your office to consider building a Kanishka memorial in Delhi for remembrance of those whose lives were sacrificed for no fault of their own," they said, referring to the ill-fated plane by its formal name of Kanishka.

"The Great Emperor Kanishka, bearing proudly an Indian flag, lies in a warehouse, rotting," they said. "Prime Minister, at least some pieces [of the wreckage]could be used in the memorial in India.''

But the RCMP are reluctant to let go of the rumpled fragments of fuselage, charred passenger seats and twisted scraps of wing flaps that were brought up from the ocean floor 20 years ago.

"The wreckage is owned by the government of India but the RCMP, or Canada has custody of it and will maintain custody until there is no possibility of a future trial, because it is all considered evidence," Inspector Tim Shields, spokesperson for RCMP E Division in Vancouver, said Monday in an interview.

"Since the Air India [bombing]is still under investigation, we have to be alive to the possibility there still could be a future trial. As such, we don't have any plans on releasing the wreckage," he added.

The RCMP would consider moving some parts of the wreckage to India if it is possible to split up the pieces without jeopardizing a future trial, and in consultation with Crown counsel and the Indian government, he also said.

A spokesman for Public Safety Canada, which has spearheaded the construction of Air India memorials in Canada, said the department did not have enough time on Monday to respond to a request for information.

In one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in aviation history, a bomb explosion aboard the Air India flight on June 23, 1985, killed 329 people. Although most of the passengers were Canadians, about 50 crew members and passengers were Indian. The federal government has built memorials in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver and broke ground in December for a memorial in Montreal.

Vancouver Island mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat, who provided items that went into making the bomb, is the only person to be convicted in connection with the Air India tragedy. The RCMP said earlier this month that 25 officers continue to work on the case.

The Boeing 747 was flying at 31,000 feet when the bomb exploded. Deep-sea dives found only 159 pieces of metal, about 5 per cent of the aircraft. The aircraft was partially rebuilt with retrieved fragments and fabricated pieces of metal for the trial of two B.C. men accused of playing a role in the conspiracy to blow up the plane. The men were subsequently acquitted. The wreckage is currently stored in a RCMP warehouse at an undisclosed location.

Amarjit Bhinder, wife of co-pilot Satwinder Singh Bhinder, said in an interview that the Indian government "should try to get it back."

Canada should work with India to build a memorial in the Indian capital of Delhi, she added.

"A memorial in India is all the more important because we cannot afford to go to Ireland every year. It is very expensive to undertake this journey," said Ms. Bhinder, referring to the annual memorial service on June 23 at the site that served as the rescue headquarters during the disaster over the Atlantic Ocean, 175 kilometres west of Ireland.

The letter, which was delivered to the Prime Minister's Office in India, was also signed by the pilot's son, Anil Singh Hanse, and the flight attendant's mother, Sundra Arora.

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