Neerja 1986
Heather Mitchell
Posthumously, Bhanot became the first female recipient and, until 2003, the youngest recipient of the Ashoka Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award of India. She also received the Tamgha-e-Pakistan, the 4th highest civilian award of Pakistan, in addition to several accolades from the United States.[2][3] Her life and humanitarian actions inspired the 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical film Neerja, directed by Ram Madhvani and starring actress Sonam Kapoor.
Neerja Bhanot was born on September 7, 1963 in Chandigarh, India into a Punjabi Hindu Brahmin family of the Bhanot clan.[4][5] She was the daughter of Harish Bhanot, a Bombay-based journalist, and Rama Bhanot. She had two brothers, Akhil and Aneesh Bhanot.[6] She received her early schooling at Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School in Chandigarh. When the family moved to Bombay, she continued her studies at Bombay Scottish School and then graduated from St. Xavier's College, Bombay.[1] It was in Bombay where she was first spotted for a modeling assignment which began her modeling career.[7] She was a huge fan of actor Rajesh Khanna and used to refer to quotes from his films throughout her life.[8]
Her father, Harish Bhanot, worked as a journalist with The Hindustan Times for more than 30 years and died on New Year's Day in 2008 in Chandigarh at the age of 86.[9] Her mother died on 5 December 2015 at the age of 86.[10]
Bhanot applied for a flight attendant job with Pan Am, when in 1985 it decided to have an all Indian cabin crew for its Frankfurt to India routes. Upon selection, she went to Miami, Florida for training as a flight attendant, but returned as a purser.[1][11]
Bhanot was the Senior Flight Purser on Pan Am Flight 73 a Boeing 747 flying from Bombay to New York via Karachi and Frankfurt, which was hijacked by four Palestinian fedayeen on 5 September 1986. The aircraft was carrying 380 passengers and 13 crew members. The fedayeen wanted to fly to Cyprus with the goal of freeing Pakistani prisoners in Cyprus. Bhanot was able to alert the cockpit crew as soon as the hijackers boarded the plane, and as the plane was on the apron, the three-member cockpit crew of pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer fled from the aircraft through an overhead hatch in the cockpit. As the most senior cabin crew member, Bhanot took charge of the situation inside the plane.[11][12][13]
The hijackers were part of the Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian terrorist organization backed by Libya; they were targeting Americans and American assets. In the early minutes of the hijacking, they identified an Indian-American citizen, dragged him to the exit, shot him dead and threw his body from the plane. The terrorists then instructed Bhanot to collect the passports of all the passengers so that they could identify the other Americans on board. She and the other attendants under her charge hid the passports of the remaining 43 Americans on board, some under a seat and the rest down a garbage chute so that the hijackers could not differentiate between American and non-American passengers.[11][12][14]
After 17 hours, the hijackers opened fire and set off explosives. Bhanot opened one of the airplane doors, and even though she could have been the first one to jump out and flee from the aircraft, she did not do so and instead started helping the other passengers escape. According to a surviving passenger, "She was guiding the passengers to the emergency exit. That is when the terrorists were firing constantly fearing a commando attack. They saw Neerja relentlessly trying to help three unaccompanied children, among others, out and that is when they caught her by her hair and shot her point blank."[15] A child on board, then aged seven, became a captain for a major airline and has stated that Bhanot has been his inspiration, and that he owes every day of his life to her.[16] She was recognized internationally as "the heroine of the hijacking" and became the youngest recipient of the Ashoka Chakra Award, India's most prestigious gallantry award for bravery during peacetime.[11][12][13]
In addition to saving the lives of many hostages, Bhanot also helped prevent the plane from getting off the ground. She posthumously received multiple awards for her courage from the Government of United States, and the Tamgha-e-Pakistan from Pakistan, an award given for showing great human kindness.[12][17]
After her death, her family set up the Neerja Bhanot Trust from the insurance proceeds. The trust presents two awards every year, one for a flight crew member, worldwide, who acts beyond the call of duty and another, the Neerja Bhanot Award, to an Indian woman who when faced with social injustice, bravely faced the situation and helped other women in similar social distress. The award includes a sum of INR 150,000 (approximately US$2,000) a trophy and a citation.[11][22][23]
Bhanot's brother Aneesh went to Washington, D.C., in 2005 to receive the "Justice for Crimes Award" awarded posthumously to her as part of the Annual Crime Rights Week at a ceremony held at the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia.[24] In 2006, she and the other Pan Am Flight 73 flight attendants and Pan Am's flight director for Pakistan were awarded the Special Courage award by the United States Department of Justice.[17]
Neerja is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical thriller film directed by Ram Madhvani and written by Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh. It was produced by Atul Kasbekar's company, Bling Unplugged, alongside Fox Star Studios. The film stars Sonam Kapoor as the eponymous lead, with Shekhar Ravjiani, Shabana Azmi, Yogendra Tiku, Kavi Shastri and Jim Sarbh in supporting roles.
The plot is based on a real-life event: the attempted hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan by Libyan-backed Abu Nidal Organization on 5 September 1986. The film is shown from the point of view of the head purser of the flight, Neerja Bhanot, who thwarted the hijack attempt by alerting the pilots, thus grounding the plane. Bhanot died trying to help save the passengers and crew, of whom 359 of the 379 on board survived.[citation needed]
The film received widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades from Bollywood award organisations, with particular praise for Kapoor's performance and Madhvani's direction. It won 2 awards at the 64th National Film Awards - Best Feature Film in Hindi and Special Mention (Kapoor). At the 62nd Filmfare Awards, Neerja received 8 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Madhvani), and won a leading 6 awards, including Best Film (Critics), Best Actress (Critics) (Kapoor), and Best Supporting Actress (Azmi).
22-year-old Neerja Bhanot arrives late for a house party one evening. Her mother, Rama, expresses concern about Neerja's job as a flight attendant, suggesting that Neerja should return to her old modelling career. Neerja insists on keeping her job. On the early morning of September 5, 1986, she is driven to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport by her friend Jaideep.
Neerja boards Pan Am 73, from Mumbai to New York with stops in Karachi and Frankfurt. During the first leg, she reflects on her brief, unhappy arranged marriage to Naresh, a professional in Doha, Qatar, who abused her over her small dowry and inability to perform household work ( lie from peaceful community ). She eventually returned home for a modelling contract. Naresh sent her parents a letter complaining about the dowry and their daughter's lack of domestic skills, demanding that Neerja either bring back the money or not return at all. Neerja left Naresh and landed a job with Pan Am Airways.
Meanwhile, the Abu Nidal organisation, a Libyan-sponsored Palestinian terrorist group, plans to hijack the plane in Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. The plane lands as scheduled wherein the four Abu Nidal terrorists, disguised as security officers escorting a Libyan diplomat, infiltrate the airport. Neerja quickly alerts the cockpit, without the terrorists knowing, and the three American pilots escape through the overhead hatch, fleeing to the terminal under fire from the hijackers. The American pilots had just enough time to escape, as the hijackers did not realise that the cockpit of a Boeing 747 is on the upper level.
When a Kenyan-born Indian American passenger reveals himself as an American, one of the terrorists murders him and dumps his body off the aircraft in front of the Pakistani negotiators. The terrorists try to locate a radio engineer among the passengers by ordering Neerja to announce over the intercom. When Imran Ali, a Pakistani radio engineer, begins to stand up, Neerja signals for him to sit down. The terrorists have the flight attendants collect all passports to identify the American passengers and hold them hostage; Neerja and her colleagues comply, disposing of any American passports by throwing them down trash chutes or hiding them under seats. Dejected over not finding any American passports, the hijackers instead take a British passenger hostage.
The Pakistani negotiators inadvertently reveal the name of radio engineer Ali, whom the hijackers bring to the cockpit to use the radio for negotiations. Meanwhile, the Pakistani authorities try to stall for time. When a younger terrorist assaults the passengers and threatens the attendants, the leader chastises him. Humiliated, the younger terrorist storms into the cockpit and shoots Ali, screaming wild threats over the radio. While negotiations with the Pakistani air controllers drag on, the negotiators slowly lose control of the situation, with the hijackers becoming more agitated by the minute. Meanwhile, Neerja, whose birthday would be in 2 days, opens an envelope given to her by Jaideep. The envelope has a letter from him, confessing his love to her, and a cookie. Neerja reads the note and eats the cookie which symbolizes her acceptance of his love, something which Jaideep will never learn.
c80f0f1006