FLIGHT 73
(An Inner Story)
Tarak Ghosh
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Flight 73 (True Crime) , a non-fiction by Tarak Ghosh
Other titles from the same author
Silent Cockpit, non-fiction
Flight 73 (Non-Fiction)
Silent Shriek (Non-Fiction)
Princess Is Back (Paranormal Historical Fiction, Paperback & E-book)
Memory Lane (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)
I Am Suzan (Romance, Paperback & E-book)
Cover Image Courtesy: Image by Pixabay https://www. Pixabay.com
Cover Design: Sayani Ghosh
First Edition : 2018
Second Edition : November, 2019
This is a work of Non-fiction.
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, 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.
Pictures of Rajib Gandhi, Ronald Reagan and Zia-Ul- Haque : Wikipedia
About the Author
Author of ‘Silent Cockpit- the Final Destination’, Tarak Ghosh is a senior crime journalist, film maker and author, best known for his heavily researched novels in English. He has been writing for over eight years. His 26 years’ experience in journalism has given him a broad base from which to approach many fictions. He graduated in English literature in 1986 and started his career as a journalist in 1987. In 2012, he resigned from the job and switched to literature. Since that time he has gone on to write within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, romance, supernatural and Non-Fiction. He has 10 paperbacks in English. He loves making films and already made 10 short films on the rights of women.
This book is dedicated to those innocent persons, who were killed by the hijackers on 5 September, 1986.
‘Flight 73’ is based on the true incident that took place on Karachi Airport Pakistan in 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 the flight 73. She was shot while shielding 3 American children from a hail of gunfire from the terrorists
Besides 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.
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.
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, 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
Mumbai to Karachi
Who knows when death comes to steal the petals of roses? The journey started with a dream and ended in nightmare.
Sahar International Airport Mumbai; now known as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport that 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 stop over was Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan and final stopover was Frankfurt Am Main Airport, Germany.
There were 380 passengers including, German, American, Mexican, Italians, French, Canadian, English, Swedish and Pakistanis and 13-member cabin crew in 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 17 years 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, Madhvi Bahuguna were busy to check everything before the take off. Neerja Bhanot was a senior flight purser for Pan Am. The work of the chief purser is to ensuring 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 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 what they never thought even in their dream.
Dr, Kishore Murthy, a survivor from 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. Prior to 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.”