Flight 73
FLIGHT 73
A harrowing journey through the events of the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking
TARAK GHOSH
Copyright © 2018 Tarak Nath Ghosh
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-3-7438-4863-4
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to those innocent persons, who were killed by the hijackers of Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September, 1986.
Flight 73 by Tarak Ghosh
Other titles from the author
Beyond the Space (Romance, Paperback & E-book), I Saw My Killer (Romance, Paperback & E-book), Castle Waits (Romance, Paperback & E-book) Silent Cockpit ( Non-fiction), Orphanage, (Paperback), Flight 648 ( Aviation Mystery, Non-fiction), I Am Suzan (Romance, Paperback & E-book), Silent Shriek (Non-Fiction), Hunger Never Fades Away (Romantic Fiction Paperback & E-book), Lucy (Collection of short stories, E-book), Hell Flower (Sci-Fi, Paperback & E-book), The Snake Woman (Sci-Fi, Paperback & E-book), Lust & Poison (Sci-Fi, Paperback & E-book), Indian Meditation (Paperback & E-book)
Cover Image: Pixabay
Cover Design: T. Kashyap
First E-book Edition: April, 2018
Second Edition: June, 2023
First Eibook published by
BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Sonnenstraße 23
80331 Munich
Germany
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following news media and public domains help me to collect information. I am grateful to them and I want to thank the media owners, editors, and the journalist who covered the incident. I thank also Neerja Bhanot's family. I am thankful to the following newspapers, magazines, persons & public domains
U.S. Department of Justice, Pan American World Airways – Aviation History Through the Words of its People, published by Blue Water Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Huffpost, B.B.C. Dawn, Sky, Telegraph, India Times, The Guardian, The Salt Lake Tribune, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Showbiz, India Today, Crowell Morning, Times of India, NDTV, Hindustan Times, UPO, Film Fare, Neerjabhanot.org, Facebook, Twitter, , Decan Herald, Mohammad Aziz Haji Dossa, James F. McCarthy.
From the Author
FLIGHT 73 –The Inner Story
FLIGHT 73 is a harrowing journey through the events of the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking. The non-fiction book "Flight 73" has been published in 64 nations, including the US, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Egypt, England, Greenland, and others. The April 2018 release of Tarak Ghosh's book "Flight 73" was distributed internationally.
About five years later, the book's second edition has been released. This second revision has several additional additions. There are a number of significant images and interviews.
This book will take readers on a harrowing journey through the events of the notorious Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking. 'Flight 73' is a gripping non-fiction story of the tragic event that took 20 lives and shocked the world on September 6th 1986. With gripping detail and captivating narrative, readers can expect to gain a comprehensive understanding of the tragedy and its aftermath.
By reading this book, readers will:
- Uncover the real story behind the hijack of Pan Am Flight 73
- Experience the tragedy through the eyes and hearts of the survivors
- Transform their understanding of terrorism and its effects
- Gain insight into the events leading up to the hijacking
What's included in the book?
- A detailed account of the hijacking
- Insightful interviews with the survivors
- Details of the investigations and court proceedings
Take a deep dive into this captivating story and unlock the real story behind the tragedy of Pan Am Flight 73. Buy this book now before the price changes!
'Flight 73' is based on the true incident that took place at Karachi Airport Pakistan on September 5, 1986, when Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked with its 361 passengers and 13 crew members by a terrorist group. Neerja Bhanot, the senior flight purser sacrificed her life to save the passengers of flight 73. She was shot dead while shielding 3 American children from a hail of gunfire from the terrorists
Apart from Neerja, there were Nupoor Abro, Madhvi Bahuguna, Dilip Bidichandani, Cecilia Da Silva, Samira Goode, Astrid Lobo, Lillian Nazareth, Mary Anne Nigli, Sherene Pavan, Ranee Vaswani, Sunshine Vesuwala and Louella Walker. They also showed their courage to save the passenger on board. They were presented the Special Courage Award by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales during the National Crime Victims' Rights Week Awards Ceremony on April 21, 2006.
FLIGHT 73
Chapter 1
Mumbai to Karachi
Who knows when death comes to steal the petals of roses? The journey started with a dream and ended in a nightmare.
Sahar International Airport Mumbai; now known as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport started functioning in 1942 in British-ruled India. It is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of total and international passenger traffic after Delhi.
September 5, 1986. It was around 3 a.m. Pan Am Flight 73, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, was preparing to take off. It was scheduled to Frankfurt, en route to New York. Its first stopover was Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan, and the final stopover was Frankfurt Am Main Airport, Germany.
There were 380 passengers including, German, American, Mexican, Italian, French, Canadian, English, Swedish, and Pakistanis, and a 13-member cabin crew on Pan Am-73 flight, that was flying from Mumbai to New York via Karachi and Frankfurt. The crews and flight attendants were Nupoor Abro, Madhvi Bahuguna, Neerja Bhanot, Dilip Bidichandani, Cecilia Da Silva, Samira Goode, Astrid Lobo, Lillian Nazareth, Mary Anne Nigli, Sherene Pavan, Ranee Vaswani, Sunshine Vesuwala and Louella Walker.
On board were 394 passengers and nine infants apart from the 13 recently-hired Indian flight attendants and the American flight crew. There were 207 Indian citizens, 85 Pakistanis, 44 US citizens, and 58 other passengers of European and other nationalities. Over 50 of the US and British passport holders were of Indian origin, returning after holidays in India. Imran Rizvi was a 17-year-old boy. He was an active sportsman, particularly interested in cricket. Imran was traveling on Pan Am flight 73 with his sisters, then ages 15 and 24. They were all going to the United States to visit an older brother who lived there.
Krishna Gadde was a 28-year-old scientist. Ms. Gadde was on board Pan Am flight 73 with her husband, after visiting family and friends in India. They had missed an earlier flight that would have brought them back home to the United States.
Dr. Ganapathi Thanikaimoni was traveling on Pan Am flight 73 to present a lecture at a symposium on marine palynology, as part of the UNESCO-sponsored conference at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts.
Rupal Desai was a member of the Aavishkar dance troupe and Trupti Dalal was the leader of the dance troupe. Musician Nayan Pancholi was also with the group. The group of 22 people was traveling on Pan Am Flight 73 to the United States to perform a cultural program. Their tickets got confirmed at the last moment and they were seated in the economy class at the back side near the tail.
Syed Nesar Ahmad was traveling to New York on Pan Am Flight 73 after attending the 11th World Congress of Sociology in New Delhi. Ricardo Munoz Rosales: was returning to the United States on Pan Am flight 73 with three co-workers.
Neerja and her co-flying attendants Nupoor Abrol, Sherene Pavan, Sunshine Vesuwala, Dilip Bidichandani, and Madhvi Bahuguna were busy checking everything before the takeoff. Neerja Bhanot was a senior flight purser for Pan Am. The work of the chief purser is to ensure the right security and safety procedures. Pan Am authorities selected 13 Indian flight attendants, 11 women and two men in December 2015 for a three-month training stint in Miami. Neerja Bhanot was one of them. They started flying only in March.
It was 4 am. Bombay (Now Mumbai), the business capital of India, was then wrapped with darkness. Only the faint sound of a roaring engine was heard. All the passengers were on board. The pilot announced that they should be arriving in Karachi in about an hour and 20 minutes. Pan Am 73 started rolling along the runway. The passengers breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't know, they were going to face such a deadly future that they never thought even in their dream.
Dr, Kishore Murthy, a survivor of the ill-fated flight 73, is presently working as a management expert with St John's Hospital in Bengaluru. He was then 31 years old, heading to NewYork to present a paper on 'Rheumatic heart disease and hypertension among pediatric patients aged below eight'.
He shared his experience with a media reporter - "I was on my way to the US to attend an international conference. We were to take a Pan Am Mumbai-Frankfurt-New York flight. It came as a surprise to us at Bombay (Mumbai) airport when we were told the flight would first land at the Karachi International Airport and then proceed to Frankfurt. Before 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."
Chapter 2
Jinnah International Airport, Karachi
Jinnah International Airport (Karachi) is the largest and busiest international and domestic airport in Pakistan. It is named after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan; Karachi is the largest city of Pakistan, the capital of Sindh, a province of the said country. During World War2 Karachi Airport was a major transshipment base for United States Army Air Force units and equipment being used by Tenth Air Force in eastern India, Burma, and the Fourteenth Air Force in China. Several operational bombers and fighter units flew into Karachi for short organizational periods before their deployment.
There was the announcement over the loudspeaker. "The current time in Karachi is 04:55 a.m." It was 05:25 according to Indian time. Pan Am 73 touched the runway of Jinnah International Airport. Karachi was Pan Am 73's one-hour scheduled stop-over. Frankfurt in Germany was Pan Am Flight 73's final stop-over. Pan Am Clipper 73 was scheduled to depart for Frankfurt in the morning hours. The flight attendants and flight engineers were to start the pre-flight checks of the aircraft.
Minutes after a Suzuki van fitted with flashing lights and radio antennae on the roof was seen racing up to Pan Am flight 73 at Karachi airport. There were four people in the van. Later they were identified as Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Safarini, Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, and Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal. They were the four members of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), a radical Palestinian splinter group. They boarded the plane intending to blow it up over Israel to create pressure on the U.S. Government. The Libyan government was alleged to have ordered the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73. The allegation did not come to light until it was reported by 'The Sunday Times' in March 2004.
The report says the Abu Nidal Organization or ANO was founded in 1974 by Sabri al-Banna. Abu Nidal means 'Father of Struggle'. The ANO has been on the United States list of terrorist organizations for 20 years. ANO was thought to be the world's most dangerous terrorist organization in the mid-1980s, but the ANO is not recognized as a prominent threat at present. The ANO's headquarters were in Baghdad, Iraq, from its founding until 1980, and thereafter moved to Syria and by 1985, had moved to Libya.
This terrorist group was alleged to carry out hijackings, kidnappings, and assassinations of diplomats. Its targets included the US, Israel, Britain, France, and many other countries. The ANO is wanted for more than 90 attacks in 20 countries from 1974-92, resulting in 900 deaths. In 1985, an Egypt Air flight (Athens to Cairo) was hijacked and forced to land in Malta by three Palestinian members of the Abu Nidal Organization. Six persons were killed before commandos stormed the plane and 58 died in the raid. In December 1985, the ANO was alleged to coordinate attacks
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Texte: TARAK GHOSH
Bildmaterialien: PIXABAY
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.01.2018
ISBN: 978-3-7438-4863-4
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Widmung:
This book is dedicated to those innocent persons, who were killed by the hijackers of Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September, 1986.