On September 5, 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 landed in Karachi for what should have been a routine stopover. Instead, armed hijackers stormed the aircraft, trapping 359 people in a nightmare that lasted 17 hours.
Amid the chaos stood Neerja Bhanot, a 22-year-old flight purser. She acted without hesitation: alerting the cockpit crew, who escaped through a hatch—preventing the hijackers from forcing the plane into the skies for an even deadlier outcome.
Throughout the ordeal, Neerja remained a pillar of courage. She hid American passports so passengers wouldn’t be targeted. She calmed children and reassured families, never putting her own safety first.
When the hijackers opened fire, Neerja stood by an emergency exit. She could have fled. Instead, she chose to stay—helping passengers escape and shielding children from bullets with her own body.
Neerja lost her life that night. But hundreds of others survived because of her. Her name endures across the world as a symbol of selfless bravery: a young woman who gave everything so that strangers might live.
