A former security guard on Wednesday told the inquiry panel into the 1985 Air India bombing that he believed Flight 182 left Montreal without a full baggage search because airline officials decided it was too costly to keep it on the ground.

Daniel Lalonde, who worked for a private security firm at Mirabel airport the night the doomed flight left Canada, said he remembers a conversation involving a man who identified himself as an Air India official and officials from Air Canada or Transport Canada.

He testified before the inquiry commission that officials at Montreal's Mirabel airport decided that delaying the plane would have been too expensive.

Lalonde, who was 18 years old at the time of the June 1985 disaster, said the conversation took place after three suspicious bags had been identified, something that should have triggered a full search of the plane's checked baggage.

While Lalonde said he does not remember the exact wording of the conversation, he said he recalled what it was about.      

"Essentially, the conversation had to do with time and money and how much it cost for a flight to be kept on the ground," said Lalonde, who is an Ontario Provincial Police sergeant.