Neerja Bhanot : The Lady Who Averted An Hijack

Pic source: Wikipedia

5 September 1986, the date when most of us were either unaware of life and its virtues or were busy dealing with our daily chorus and its hullabaloo, Late Neerja Bhanot a.k.a the heroine of hijack was giving a new definition to courage and compassion.

    

Neerja Bhanot, the youngest recipient of India's highest civilian award for bravery, the Ashoka Chakra posthumously, was a senior flight attendant for Pan Am and a model by profession. She was born on 7 September 1963 in Chandigarh and was no less than a gift of God to her parents. Her life history (yeah! When i say HISTORY i mean it.) is a great example to all the women out there who has ever heared that "you are a woman".

         Her story of bravery started right from her marriage when she tied the knot in 1985. However the marriage didn't sustain for long because of dowry pressure. She opted to say no to dowry and she returned back to her parents in Mumbai within 2 months. That's what any woman who lives for her self respect would do!                                   

Pic source: wikinut.com

      After all the trauma, instead of losing her heart and faith in herself, she bundled all her courage and chose to move on with dignity. She applied for the designation of flight attendant for Pan Am and found place in top 80 out of nearly 10,000 applicants.
     

On 5 September 1986, just 2 days before late Bhanot's 23rd birthday, the plane Pan Am flight 73 was hijacked by four terrorists, said to be from Abu Nidal organization, when it landed at karachi. At that plane late Bhanot was on duty as senior flight purser.

The armed terrorists were raged to kill all the American passengers one by one and to easily identify them, they asked late Bhanot to hand over the passport of all passengers and crew but, spontaneous and sharp minded Neerja not only warned the cockpit crew about the hijack (who later fled and left the plane along with passengers and crew deserted) but, also hid the passports of 19 americans with the help of her associates. 

Taking advatage of dim light she opened the back door for passengers. The lady had two options when she opened the door, either to be the first one to fly away like the cockpit crew did or to be the last to come out of plane.

The brave heart Bhanot chose to become a martyr and that too just 25 hours before her 23rd bithday and gave up her life shielding 3 children from a series of bullets.

 After a biopic of boxing queen Marry Kom and legend Milkha Singh , now bollywood is all set to give a tribute to 'The Heroine Of Hijack'.

 by- Sadhvi Sharma, The Illogical Saint

Sources : wikipedia.com
                 neerjabhanot.org
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