The Hijack Heroine

The Hijack Heroine

Born: 7th September 1963

Died: 5th September 1986

Smt Neerja Bhanot was born on 7th September 1963, Chandigarh. She was the darling of her family, and the only sister of two brothers, all of them used to call her ‘lado’. She did her studies first from Chandigarh and later in Mumbai, where she became a model, representing brands like Binaca toothpaste, Forhans and Godrej. She was married at the age of 19, to a marine engineer and moved to Sharjah, UAE. Her husband started abusing her, which included starvation, verbal taunts and threats. After two months of abuse, she left her husband and returned to Mumbai where she decided to become a flight attendant. On that fateful September day, Neerja was appointed as the senior flight purser on Pan Am Flight 73 flying from Mumbai to the United States. During its stopover in Karachi, four armed men belonging to the Abu Nidal Organisation hijacked the aircraft, which was carrying around 380 passengers and 13 crew members. Neerja, being alert, quickly informed the cockpit crew using the hijack code, which caused the American pilots to escape and thus ground the plane. The enraged hijackers urged her to collect the passengers’ passports. Sensing that their main targets were American people. Neerja and her team hid those passports under the seats and in the trash chute. It is said that her calming presence also kept the passengers and crew members in control for 17 hours as she served sandwiches and beverages to raise their morale, even after the terrorists killed a passenger and threw him out of the plane. The hijackers eventually decided and opened fire, Neerja worked quickly and evacuated as many passengers as she could (via the emergency exit). Neerja was shot dead while she was shielding three American children against the gunshots. Out of the 44 Americans on board, 42 were saved owing to Neerja’s presence of mind. The survivors of the attack gave her the title of ‘Heroine of the Hijack’. Neerja was posthumously awarded several honours, which includes the Ashoka Chakra (India’s highest peacetime gallantry award) and she was the first woman and youngest recipient of the award. She was also honoured with the Tamgha-e-Insaniyat award by Pakistan (2004). The Indian Postal Service also released a stamp in her memory. In 2016, her biopic was made by Ram Madhvani (Director) in which Sonam Kapoor (Actress) played her role and her mother’s role was played by Shabana Azmi (Actress). That film too won a number of awards and a National Award.

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