As Dr Kishore adds to the leading website, “Neerja was communicating with the terrorists in broken Arabic. There were approximately 400 passengers in the plane at the time and Neerja was communicating between the hijackers and the passengers and keeping everyone calm. When we landed in Karachi, the aircraft was hijacked by Libyan terrorists but Neerja, who was well trained in anti-hijack measures, alerted the pilots and they escaped through the cockpit window.” Prior to our departure, we had heard that all airports in Pakistan and India were on high alert as the Americans had bombed (Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar) Gaddafi’s palace (in retaliation for the Libyan involvement in the bombing of a Pan Am flight, which crashed at Lockerbie, Soctland). It came as a surprise to us at Bombay airport when we were told the flight would first land at the Karachi International Airport and then proceed to Frankfurt. We were to take a Pan Am Mumbai-Frankfurt-New York flight. “I was on my way to the US to attend an international conference. Later, when the hijackers opened fire on passengers and planted explosives, Neerja opened an emergency exit to let the passengers through, for which, she was fatally shot by the terrorists.ĭr Kishore Murthy, a survivor from the ill-fated Pan Am flight recalls the incidents on that day inside the flight: Neerja Bhanot, head attendant on the flight, first hid the passports of American passengers so that they could not be distinguished from non-Americans. Surviving hostage Michael Thexton had published a book in which he claimed he had heard the hijackers intended to crash the plane into a target in Israel (in the manner of 9/11). Pan Am Flight 73, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, with 360 passengers on board, was hijacked on September 5, 1986, while on the ground in Karachi (it had just arrived from Mumbai and was on its way to Frankfurt and ultimately to New York City), by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal Organization.
I am glad today I can show my gratitude to them.”Ĭrew member hits out at makers of the movie ‘Neerja’, says film is ‘fiction’ and not ‘reality’ It was Astrid, Sherene, Sunshine and off course Massey who were the real heroes of the day. Not fair to the FA’s who have in reality faced their ordeal!” Neerja was a wonderful person and I think even her soul today would cringe at taking this undeserved adulation. But also a difficult moment for all those flight attendants to accept the movie for what it is unfairly propagating. Nupoor posted on FB, “Yes, truly a very difficult moment.
0 kommentar(er)
