Neerja took bullets for us: Pan Am Hijack survivor

CANDIGARH: As Sonam Kapoor's upcoming film Neerja, a biopic on Neerja Bhanot of Chandigarh, India's youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra, hits the big screen on February 19, one of the survivors of the Pan Am Flight 73 flight hijack remembers the terror-filled moments and how the 22-year-old cabin crew member saved the lives of a bulk of the passengers.

Artiste Dharamendra Shah from Gujarat, then 21, recalls how he escaped from the plane through the emergency door opened by the brave Indian stewardess even as two members of his troupe, Trupti Dalal and Rupal Desai, were killed by the hijackers.

The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, India, and was preparing to depart from Jinnah International Airport in Karachi for John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, via Frankfurt Airport in West Germany when the hijackers struck.

"Neerja was a senior flight purser, and from Mumbai to Karachi, she was moving around in the flight with the other air-hostess, serving with a broad smile on her face," recalls Shah.

According to documented survivor accounts, four men from the Palestinian terrorist group, the Abu Nidal Organisation, armed with Kalashnikovs and explosives, hijacked the plane and ordered the aircrew to close the doors.

Quick reaction from the Neerja meant the pilot was instantly alerted. The aircrew in the cockpit immobilised the plane and escaped. The terrorists had planned to crash the plane into a building -- a scenario envisioned years before the 9/11 attacks in New York. Knowing Americans would be the first targets, Neerja collected their passports, preventing the hijackers from identifying and picking them off.

Towards the end of the 17-hour standoff, Bhanot opened the emergency door, opened the evacuation chute and assisted the passengers' escape even though she could have been the first to jump out.
She was shot in the head while shielding three children from a hail of bullets. Quick thinking by Neerja mean that most of the passengers were saved. There were 22 casualties in the hijack.

But 30 years after the incident, there is no closure for most Indian survivors as they have failed to get any compensation from US authorities.

Talking to TOI, Shah rued, "What we got was the insurance that comes with the air ticket. The US was paid 1.5 billion dollars in compensation by Libya. This was given to the 40-odd American passengers of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73, but not shared with the Indians, including the kin of 13 who were killed in the hijacking."

"We were a group of 160 passengers who filed the petition in the US, but it was eventually dismissed. Between 2009 and 2014, Indian government too has maintained studied silence on the issue and despite numerous representations by us, there has been no headway. This is ironic when Neerja saved the Americans by collecting their passports. Besides, the bullet does not know the nationality of the hostage," he said.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Neerja-took-bullets-for-us-Pan-Am-survivor/articleshow/51048730.cms