Centre honours Neerja Bhanot

New Delhi/Chandigarh: The civil aviation ministry conferred an honour on Neerja Bhanot posthumously on Friday in New Delhi. The award was presented to Neerja`s brother, Aneesh Bhanot, to launch the centenary celebrations of Civil Aviation in India by Union minister for overseas Indian affairs and civil aviation Vayalar Ravi.
On September 5,1986, Pan Am 73 landed at Karachi from Bombay (now Mumbai), on its way to New York.
As passengers were boarding the aircraft at around 6 am, four hijackers dressed in Pakistan police uniforms and armed with assault rifles, pistols, grenades and plastic explosive belts stormed the aircraft and seized control of it.
Realizing that the hijackers intended to kill Americans aboard the plane, Neerja and the other airhostesses hid the passports of American passengers when the hijackers ordered them to collect the passports of all the passengers. The flight remained under the control of the hijackers for 17 hours and ended in a bloodbath with the hijackers firing indiscriminately inside the aircraft and hurling hand grenades at the passengers, who they had herded into one section of the aircraft. Neerja opened one of the emergency doors and helped passengers escape. She was shot dead while shielding three young children from a hail of gunfire from the terrorists.
Neerja is also the youngest recipient of India`s highest civilian award for bravery posthumously — the Ashok Chakra.
19/02/11 Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Feb 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2011, Safety Feb 2011