Neerja Bhanot

Indian flight attendant, a recipient of Ashoka Chakra and Nishan-e-Pakistan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Neerja Bhanot (7 September 1963 – 5 September 1986)[1][2] was an Indian purser who died while saving passengers on Pan Am Flight 73 which had been hijacked by terrorists from a terrorist organization during a stopover in Karachi, Pakistan, on 5 September 1986, just two days before her 23rd birthday. Posthumously, she became the first female recipient and, until 2023, youngest recipient of India's highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra, as well as several other accolades from the governments of Pakistan and the United States. She was shot while trying to save three children from the plane.[2][3] Her life and heroism inspired the 2016 biopic Neerja directed by Ram Madhvani and starring Indian actress Sonam Kapoor.

Quick facts: Neerja Bhanot Ashoka Chakra Nishan-e-Pakistan...
Neerja Bhanot

A 2004 Indian postage stamp depicting the Ashoka Chakra award next to a portrait of a smiling Bhanot
Neerja on a 2004 postage stamp of India
Born(1963-09-07)7 September 1963
Chandigarh, India
Died5 September 1986(1986-09-05) (aged 22)
Cause of deathGunshot wound
EmployerPan Am
Known forPan Am Flight 73
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