I knew at an early age that I wanted to pursue a career at sea. I left school at the age of 15 and went in residence to the UK National Sea Training College to prepare for life in the British Merchant Navy. It was the beginning of a journey that would see me ,over the course of the next 32 years, sail across the world’s Oceans on several different types of ships carrying many different types of cargo. I then emigrated from the UK to Canada and spent 10 years working on a Gas Production Platform Offshore Nova Scotia. 

     Throughout my working life I have experienced the gradual improvements of Safety Standards from the, what can only be described as, lax in my early Merchant Navy days to the extremely high Standards of today. One experience in particular made me appreciate all attempts to raise the workplace Standards. One day in 1985 I was the 8-12 watchkeeper , (Able Seaman) , on a ship crossing the Atlantic en route from Quebec City to Dublin when we received a message that was to shatter the normal Sunday morning routine of a British Merchant ship at sea. An aircraft had disappeared from radar whilst in communication with Shannon air traffic control on the West coast of Ireland and we were close to its last known position. What had materialised was to change the lives of many , forever. Little did I realise then that it would take a criminal trial , a Royal Commission of Inquiry (a Full Public Inquiry) and 24 years to understand how, what happens to be, Canada’s largest mass murder had been planned and executed.  

     Following the publication of the Inquiry Report it was striking that the preventative Barriers that were in place had failed allowing a series of events to unfold that would cost hundreds of lives and widely affect the victims families and also many others that had involvement in the case.

     We can’t assume that such a disaster couldn’t happen again . It may not be an Aircraft next time ! We are talking about Barriers ,Systems and human interactions that are used in every Safety Critical Industry. The disaster of Air India 182, is often referred to as Canada's 911, and yet it struggles to become part of Canadians psyche. Many Canadians that I have met had never heard about it. Yet it is a story that can lend itself to preventing disaster in many different workplace settings . Thanks to the commitment of the victims families to press for a public inquiry and the diligent insistence of Commissioner John Major and his staff to probe for the answers the lessons are in this story to prevent similar tragedies from destroying thousands of lives in the future.