An unforgettable blood stain ( A real story ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neerja Bhanot, was working as an Air Hostess with Pan Am airlines. . On 5 September 1986, Bhanot was on the Flight-73, which was going from Mumbai to New York. The flight was hijacked at Karachi airport. The hijackers wanted to attack the Israeli defence ministry, using the aircraft as a missile. . Soon after the aircraft was hijacked, Bhanot alerted the cockpit crew and, as the plane was going to take off, the three-member American cockpit crew of pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer fled from the aircraft. Within a short time after seizing control of the aircraft, hijackers realized that the pilots had escaped off the plane so was therefore forced to negotiate with the officials asking them to arrange the pilots. . The hijackers then ordered the flight attendants to collect the passports of all passengers. Neerja Bhanot realized that the passengers with American passports would be killed by the hijackers so she hid the passports of the 41 Americans on board, some under a seat and some in a dust bin. . After 17 hours, when the pilots were not arranged, the hijackers opened fire and set off explosives. Bhanot opened the emergency door and helped a number of passengers escape. She could have been the first person to jump out when she opened the door. . But she decided not to escape. She decided to save all the passengers. She helped all the passengers to escape. She used her body as a shield to save three children from a hail of bullets fired by the terrorists. . The 23 years old, beautiful air hostess was killed then and there mercilessly. . 359 people were saved while 20 lost their lives. . Neerja Bhanot was recognised internationally as The Heroine of The Hijack and is the youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra Award, Indias most prestigious gallantry award for bravery during peace time. ............................................................................................... Crew (noun) = all the people working on a ship, plane, etc Seize (verb) = to take something in your hand suddenly and using force Stain (noun) = a dirty mark on something, that is difficult to remove a hail of something (noun) = a large number or amount of something that is aimed at somebody to harm them.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 07:49:46 +0000
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