Neerja Bhanot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neerja Bhanot (born September 7, 1962 in Chandigarh , † September 5, 1986 in Karachi ), married Neerja Mishra , was an Indian flight attendant and a model. She gained international fame through her selfless service as a member of the crew of Pan-Am flight 73 , during whose hijacking she was killed. She received numerous awards posthumously, including becoming the first woman to receive the Indian Ashok Chakra Award for bravery.

Life

Training and employment as a flight attendant

Neerja Bhanot was born in 1962 (according to other information 1963 or 1964) as the daughter of Harish Bhanot (1922-2008), a journalist for the Indian daily newspaper The Hindustan Times , and his wife Rama. She grew up with two older brothers and was called "Lado" in her family. Neerja Bhanot attended the Sacred Heart School in her native Chandigarh. In March 1974 the family moved to Bombay , where Bhanot became a student at Bombay Scottish High School . She completed her school education at St. Xavier's College in Bombay.

An arranged wedding took place in March 1985 and Bhanot moved away from her family to set up a household with her husband in the Persian Gulf . However, the relationship was unhappy and Bhanot returned to her family in Bombay just two months later. The first model orders followed there after she was discovered by a magazine at the age of 16. In addition to her work as a photo model for advertising (she took on approx. 90 orders), she got a job as a flight attendant for the US airline Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) on January 16, 1986 in Bombay . She completed her training in Miami, USA . In April 1986 she was promoted to the highest ranking flight attendant ( purserette ) because of her leadership skills . With a view to her modeling career, she also began to work on a photo portfolio.

Pan Am Flight 73 hijacked and death

On September 5, 1986, Bhanot was cabin chief on Pan-Am flight 73. The scheduled flight, for which a Boeing 747-100 ( aircraft registration number: N656PA, name: Clipper Empress of the Seas ) was used, was to be from Bombay to New York lead, with planned stopovers at the airports of Karachi and Frankfurt am Main . While boarding in Karachi at 6:05 a.m., the Pan-Am machine was kidnapped by four terrorists from the Palestinian Abu Nidal organization who had disguised themselves as security personnel. Neerja Bhanot managed to warn the cockpit crew via the on-board phone, whereupon they locked the cockpit door and abseil down through a hatch. The hijackers' plans to divert the Boeing 747 with the 374 passengers and 15 crew members it had left behind to Larnaka , Cyprus , were thus nullified. The plan was to release 1,500 prisoners from Cypriot and Israeli prisons. When the kidnappers ordered the flight attendants to collect all of the passengers' passports in order to select passengers with US citizenship, Bhanot hid the US passports. Nevertheless, a 29-year-old passenger with US nationality was executed. Bhanot identified herself to the terrorists as the most senior flight attendant, remained calm and even smiled during the hostage-taking to reassure the passengers. With that she turned the kidnappers against her, with whom she tried to make eye contact. The kidnappers often pointed their firearms at Bhanot, suspecting them of secretly communicating with the passengers. She also took care of children and frail passengers.

After 16 hours of being held hostage, the power supply to the machine went completely out at 9:55 p.m. The hijackers then began to open fire on the passengers with their automatic firearms and detonated two grenades. Bhanot and the rest of the flight attendants immediately began opening the emergency exits. Already injured, Bhanot warned fleeing passengers about the height of the emergency exits over the wings of the Boeing 747 and, according to official reports from Pan Am, threw himself protectively in front of three children in the hail of bullets. She later died as a result of her serious gunshot wounds, while 19 passengers were also killed; more than 120 people were injured. Pakistani security forces were only able to storm the Pan-Am machine and arrest the four kidnappers alive 15 minutes after the shooting began.

A chartered Indian Airlines plane flew 98 survivors and the bodies of six victims back to Bombay on September 7, 1986, including that of Bhanot, who would have celebrated her 24th birthday that day. Her body was cremated in Bombay on September 8th. On the same day, Pan Am officially suspended its flights to Karachi due to security concerns.

Aftermath

Posthumously, Neerja Bhanot was hailed as a heroine by her employer Pan Am, but also by the Indian and international media for her work during the aircraft hijacking. A Pan Am spokesman described her as “a brave woman who took command of the plane” after the pilots managed to escape. The Sunday Mail of New Delhi titled Bhanot as "heroine of the hijack" ( Eng .: "heroine of the kidnapping"). In the year of her death, she was honored with the highest civil valor award in India in peacetime, the Ashok Chakra Award. Bhanot was the first woman to receive this award and is still the youngest recipient to this day. In 1987 she was also the only Indian woman to be honored with the “Heroism Award” from the US Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). Other awards included the Pakistani Tagme-e-Insaniyat , the "Medal of Heroism" from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the 2005 Justice for Crimes Award from the United States Attorney , Washington, DC, and 2011 an honor from the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation. In 2004 the Indian Post also issued a stamp of the Ashok Chakra Prize winner with her image.

Bhanot's family founded the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust in 1990 in memory of their daughter , which awards two awards a year. One is donated for Indian women who have successfully defended themselves against social injustice. The second is awarded to members of flight crews worldwide who have behaved above average in a difficult situation. The prizes are endowed with 150,000 Indian rupees each . The organization's general secretary is Bhanot's brother Aneesh, an advertising executive. From 2011, Aneesh Bhanot published two books on famous personalities from Chandigarh , the region where his sister was born, in memory of his sister .

In 2008 the US government and Libya agreed to abandon all claims from the hijacking in exchange for a payment of US $ 1.5 billion. This dropped a lawsuit filed by Flight 73 passengers in a Washington, DC court. However, the decision to only pay US citizens with the sum caused criticism. Neerja Bhanot's mother Rama publicly criticized this decision and wrote letters to the White House and the US Ambassador to India with 120 other Indians (including families of 13 Indians killed in the plane hijacking) . She advocated a regulation as in the case of the Lockerbie attack , in which passengers of all nationalities were taken into account.

The four surviving hijackers from Flight 73 and one other suspect allegedly involved in the planning were sentenced to death in Pakistan in 1988, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. The alleged leader, Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, was in September 2001 after a series of amnesties released from prison, but a day later by US agents in Bangkok captured when he to relatives in Jordan wanted to travel . He was sentenced to 160 years in prison in the United States in 2004 and is serving the sentence in a Colorado prison . The other four perpetrators - Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar - were released from Pakistan's Adiala Prison in January 2008, prompting the FBI to give a bounty of five $ Million suspended on them. Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim is said to have died in a rocket attack in northern Waziristan in January 2010, according to the Pakistani authorities .

Posthumous honors

  • 1987: Ashok Chakra Award from the Government of India
  • 1987: "Heroism Award" from the US Flight Safety Foundation (FSF)
  • "Tagme-e-Insaniyat" (Pakistan)
  • "Medal of Heroism" from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
  • 2005: Justice for Crimes Award from the United States Attorney , Washington, DC
  • 2006: United States Department of Justice's Special Courage Award
  • 2011: "Indian Civil Aviation Ministry's Award"
  • 2011: “Courage of Conviction Karamveer Puraskar” by iCONGO

literature

  • Lester, Valerie: Fasten your seat belts! : history and heroism in the Pan Am cabin . McLean, Va .: Paladwr Press, 1995, ISBN 9780962648380 .

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Bhanot, Harish: A Father Reminisces . In: The Hindustan Times , October 5, 1986 (accessed April 9, 2012 via neerjabhanot.org).
  2. ↑ a b Jaffery, Iqbal (AP): Hijackers Ordered Held for 15 Days Pending Indictment . September 8, 1986, International News, Karachi (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
  3. ↑ cf. Official website start screen (accessed April 9, 2012).
  4. ^ Journalist, former MC member Harish Bhanot passes away at expressindia.com, January 2, 2008 (accessed April 9, 2012).
  5. ^ Vij, Illa: Brave in life, brave in death at tribuneindia.com, November 13, 1999 (accessed April 9, 2012).
  6. ↑ a b c Bhardwaj, Supriya: Time left indelible scars: Bhanot siblings . In: The Times of India , January 18, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  7. ↑ a b c Pan Am Citation at neerjabhanot.org (accessed April 9, 2012).
  8. ↑ a b c Anderson, Harry; Stanger, Theodore; Elliott, Dorina; Barry, John: The Agony of Pan Am Flight 73 . In: Newsweek , September 15, 1986, p. 20.
  9. ↑ a b c The Airhostess Who Gave Her Life. To Save Others . In: Power Politics , April 1, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  10. ^ Roby, Edward ( UPI ): Hijack survivors airlifted from Pakistan . September 8, 1986, PM cycle, Frankfurt am Main (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  11. ↑ AP : Pan Am Announces Suspension of Flights to Karachi . September 8, 1986, AM cycle, International News (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  12. ↑ a b Yen, Hope (AP): Leader of 1986 hijacking plot sentenced to life in prison . May 13, 2004 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  13. ^ Sun, Lena: New US Citizen Among Fatalities; Most Relatives Await Word on Passengers' Fate . In: The Washington Post , September 6, 1986, p. A1.
  14. ↑ a b AP: Returning Hostages Grateful To Have Survived . September 9, 1986, PM cycle, Domestic News (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  15. ↑ a b Lingam, TSK (UPI): Indian hijack survivors arrive home . September 7, 1986, AM cycle, Bombay (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  16. ↑ AP: Pan Am Announces Suspension of Flights to Karachi . September 8, 1986, AM cycle, International News (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  17. ↑ Pan Am Jet Girl 'Brave' . In: Telegraph , September 8, 1986 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  18. ↑ a b Center honors Neerja Bhanot . In: The Times of India (TOI), February 20, 2011 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  19. ↑ Shekhawat releases postage stamp on Neerja Bhanot . In: Hindustan Times , October 9, 2004, 11:59 PM EST, New Delhi (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
  20. ↑ Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at karmayog.org (accessed April 9, 2012). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.karmayog.org
  21. ↑ Bajaj, Parul: People Diaries . In: Indian Express , July 4, 2011 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  22. ↑ Bajaj, Parul: For the People . In: Indian Express , January 9, 2012 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  23. ↑ Protest agenda: why compensate deaths of only Americans in hijack? . In: Indian Express , November 4, 2010, Mumbai (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  24. ↑ Chhibber, Maneesh: Neerja Bhanot's mom wants to meet Obama . In: Indian Express , October 28, 2010, New Delhi (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  25. ↑ Rajghatta, Chidanand: 24 yrs after Pan Am hijack, Neerja Bhanot killer falls to drone . In: The Times of India , January 17, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  26. ↑ America honors Neerja Bhanot at timesofindia.indiatimes.com, April 13, 2005 (accessed April 9, 2012).
  27. ↑ Neerja Bhanot honored . In: Indian Express , November 28, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  28. ↑ Nerja in the Internet Movie Database (English), Indian film from 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Bhanot, Neerja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mishra, Neerja; Lado
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian flight attendant and model
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Chandigarh , India
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 1986
Place of death Karachi , Pakistan