Neerja Bhanot

Do you know about the flight attendant who received the Ashok chakra award from Indian government and the Tamgha-e-Pakistan from the Pakistani government.  If you guessed Neerja Bhanot, you are correct. This is the story of her bravery on Panam flight 73.

It was early in the morning in the city of Bombay (Mumbai), the year was 1986 on September 5th and Neerja Bhanot was at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport. She was going on Panam flight 73 to JFK airport New York via Karachi Jinnah International Airport and Frankfurt am main airport. She boarded the flight and welcomed 360 passengers on board and the planes doors were closed. The plane lifted off.

1 hour passes and flight 73 lands at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport Pakistan. The 747 taxis to the gate and the plane stops. The cabin doors open and people disembarking at Jinnah International Airport get off the plane and new passengers going to Frankfurt and New York board the plane. As the cabin crew are ready to close the doors, gun fire starts and hijackers' barge through the security gates and start shooting and run towards flight 73. Neerja shouts "Close the doors" but the flight attendants are not strong enough and the hijackers manage to get into the plane.

They shove the flight attendants into empty seats and point their guns toward the passengers and shout, "HANDS IN THE AIR" and everyone raises their hands. Secretly Neerja calls the cockpit when the hijackers are not looking and says "HIJACK", this allowed the pilots to escape the plane from the emergency hatch in the cockpit but one of the hijackers overhears Neerja and points a gun at her back and he forces her to take him to the cockpit. The hijackers push open the door and see the pilots running toward the Terminal and start shooting at them, but the pilots are already a safe distance away.

Frustrated the hijacker pushes Neerja all the way down the stairs and he shoots an American person. Then he asks the flight attendants to collect the passports of the passengers. Neerja realizes that the hijackers are targeting Americans, she tells the other flight attendants to not collect the American passports and instead hide them under the seats and throw the rest down the trash chute once all the passports are collected. The hijackers not knowing that the air hostesses hid the American passports gets angry when they can't find any American passports and searches Neerja. They find a British passport and asks the British man to come up and asks if he is a soldier or if he has a gun, he replies no to the question. The hijacker then shouts out if there is a radio engineer and if there is no radio engineer, he will kill the British man.

Turns out there is a radio person on the plane. He goes by the name Ali. He boarded the plane 2 minutes before the hijacking began. Once the hijacking began, he removed his coat to show to the hijackers that he was just a passenger. Ali raises his hands, and a hijacker grabs him by the hand and shoves him into the cockpit. They ask him to communicate their ransom demands, but he is not able to do that to their satisfaction. After a few minutes the hijacker shoots him. A few hours pass and finally the Pakistan army comes to Jinnah airport the hijacker notices them from a window. At that moment the battery starts dying and the lights go out. The exit signs illuminate and the hijackers not listening to Neerja start shooting at the bombs they planted and Neerja keeps telling them the battery is out, but they don't listen.

Neerja then rushes to an emergency exit and opens it, and a slide deploys. Neerja helps passengers to get down meanwhile in the middle of the plane a passenger manages to open the door and he helps the passengers. Finally, there are three kids remaining in the plane. Neerja rushes to them and as she tries to help them escape the hijacker points a gun at the children, but Neerja uses her body as a shield to the bullets, she is shot three times. The kids take her hands and together they ride down the slide Neerja gives one child a note before passing out. She is then put into an ambulance.

September 7th is Neerja Bhanots birthday, but Neerja's parents receive bad news Neerja has passed away. As Neerja's mother is crying, a child brings a note that was given to him by Neerja, which says that Neerja hates tears. At that moment everyone gathers around Neerja's body and salutes her for saving so many passengers. Later that year Neerja is awarded the Ashok chakra award and the Tamagha-e Pakistan as well as a medal from the United States. Out of the 379 occupants on the plane, 358 people survived the hijacking and the hijackers were sentenced life in prison. 

In conclusion Neerja Bhanot was a very brave women who helped more than 300+ people to get out of the plane. She is honored for her bravery and a movie in the title of NEERJA was made in her honor.

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neerja

flight 73