Pan Am Flight 73
1986 airliner hijacking / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pan Am Flight 73 was a Pan American World Airways flight from Bombay, India, to New York, United States with scheduled stops in Karachi, Pakistan and Frankfurt, West Germany.
 N656PA, the incident aircraft, seen in January 1985 at the now-closed Munich Riem Airport | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 5, 1986 |
| Summary | Hijacking |
| Site | Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan 24°54′24″N 67°09′39″E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-121 |
| Aircraft name | Clipper Empress of the Seas |
| Operator | Pan American World Airways |
| Registration | N656PA |
| Flight origin | Sahar International Airport Mumbai, India |
| Stopover | Jinnah International Airport Karachi, Pakistan |
| Last stopover | Frankfurt am Main Airport Frankfurt am Main, West Germany |
| Destination | John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport New York, United States |
| Occupants | 379 |
| Passengers | 360 |
| Crew | 19 |
| Fatalities | 21[1] |
| Injuries | 120 |
| Survivors | 358 |
On September 5, 1986, the Boeing 747-121 serving the flight was hijacked while on the ground at Karachi by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal Organization. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Bombay.[2] A grand jury later concluded that the militants were planning to use the hijacked airliner to pick up Palestinian prisoners in both Cyprus and Israel.[3]
More than twenty passengers were killed during the hijacking, including nationals from India, the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico. All the hijackers were arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan. However, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison. Neerja Bhanot, head attendant on the flight, was shot dead and posthumously received the highest civil award Tamgha-e-Pakistan from Pakistan as well as India's highest peacetime award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra Award, for her efforts to save passengers' lives.[4]