Pan Am Flight 73
N656PA, plane involved in hijacking at Hamburg Airport, January 1985.
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| Hijacking summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 5, 1986 |
| Summary | Hijacking |
| Site | Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Passengers | 360 |
| Crew | 19 |
| Fatalities | 21 |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 120 |
| Survivors | 340 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-121 |
| Aircraft name | Clipper Empress of the Seas |
| Operator | Pan American World Airways |
| Registration | N656PA |
| Flight origin | Sahar International Airport Mumbai, India |
| Stopover | Jinnah International Airport Karachi, Pakistan |
| Last stopover | Frankfurt am Main Airport Frankfurt am Main, West Germany |
| Destination | John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport New York, United States |
Pan Am Flight 73, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, was hijacked on September 5, 1986, while on the ground at Karachi, Pakistan, by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal Organization. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, India, and was preparing to depart Jinnah International Airport in Karachi for Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, ultimately continuing on to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States. A June 2001 grand jury charged that the militants were planning to use the hijacked plane to pick up Palestinian prisoners in both Cyprus and Israel. However, in 2006, surviving hostage Michael Thexton 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).
Twenty of the passengers were killed during the hijacking, twelve of them were from India and the rest were from the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico. All the hijackers were arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan; however, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison. Neerja Bhanot, head attendant on the flight, gave her life up to save 360 others. She first hid the passports of American passengers so that they could not be distinguished from non-Americans. This was because the hijackers decided to take the passports of all passengers in order to identify the American citizens present and make them targets. Seventeen hours later, the hijackers opened fire on passengers and planted explosives, at which point Bhanot opened an emergency exit to let the passengers through. She was fatally shot while shielding 3 American children from the bullets of the hijackers.
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Wikipedia