Pan Am Flight 759 went down shortly after takeoff in a Kenner neighborhood on July 9, 1982, killing all 145 on board. The Abu Nidal Organisation (ANO), which they were members of, was opposed to US and Israeli policy in the Middle East. They gave us strength. Gari Dave is now a Sunnyvale attorney and she is representing a group of other survivors who are fighting to keep millions in restitution paid to the survivors by the Libyan government, who admitted involvement in the hijacking. . Grubbs was not among the survivors. Some Southlanders will not be coming home. There were 14 flight attendants on board, 12 . It departed from Los Angeles bound for the . One person opened the door that led to the wing of the plane. We were travelling to the USA for a series of performances. Her sister could get as much. She was hit with a bullet in her skull and had injuries on her chest and hands. 25-30 passengers were killed and a large number were injured. He spoke to Witness about that terrible disaster. Neerja was standing right next to the exit. March 10, 2003 - Attorneys for both sides filed briefs in response to the motions and notices filed on February 10, 2003. She could have easily been the first one to escape but she chose to push everyone else out. October 17, 1990. Jenny White's parents Bryan and Margaret were touring the United States, stopping off in New Orleans and preparing to fly to Las Vegas on July 9, 1982. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death, Skin lesion removed from President Bidens chest last month was cancerous, doctor says, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Latinx Files: In praise of Jenna Ortega, Aubrey Plaza and moody, deadpan Latinas. (Neerja Bhanot's pictures courtesy: Aneesh Bhanot). Some survivors of the ill-fated PanAm flight 73 recount the sordid memories of that September day in 1986 when . We just started jumping. They saw another door had been deployed in automatic, which meant that the emergency slide was inflated. Melissa Missy Trahan was just 16 months old when she was rescued from the rubble of Pan Am Flight 759 in Kenner, Louisiana, on July 9, 1982. On March 27, 1977, the most shocking and deadliest air disaster happened, changing the aviation world forever. It was an American aircraft and Americans were their target. Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Initiative, View a copy of the Court's legal opinion on the availability of the death penalty in this case, See a copy of the Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Transcript of Sentencing Proceeding - May 13, 2004, See a Message on the 25th Anniversary of the Hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73. Eventually the militants threatened that, as a pilot had not materialised, a passenger would be shot every 15 minutes. Courageous crew members like Sunshine went back into the plane to look for survivors when the gunfire ceased and found . It was his birthday and he was taking revenge. She persuaded them to let the children drink water too. Los Angeles, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. Three lives would be saved.". MUMBAI-Neerja Bhanot died on the night of Sept. 5, 1986, after terrorists killed her for helping passengers escape Pan Am Flight 73 hijacked at Karachi airport, Pakistan. Nupoor saw them shoot near the feet of a colleague, shouting at her to lock the door. The "Shatter Zone" Portion Of The Reconstructed Fuselage Of Pan Am Flight 103, Which Exploded Over Lockerbie In 1988 Is On Display January 31, 2001. It shocked the world, and is the subject of a newly released film, but the surviving crew have until now remained silent. We stood still and numb, long after the end credits rolled. At one point she looked longingly at the emergency axe in a glass box in the cockpit. Survivors of a 1986 terrorist attack on Pan Am 73 in Pakistan faced a nightmare together. Being fond of writing, I was jotting down my feelings on a piece of paper. In the past several weeks, the Indian and Indian-American victims of the Pan Am 73 flight have renewed their efforts in both Washington and New Delhi, pushing the two governments to get them the . Mike Thexton, a passenger on the plane, describes the act in his book What Happened to The Hippy Man? After the crash, Trahan and her father, who was working when the plane hit, moved away from Kenner to be closer to family. SARP, Aytel, Arlington. Clipper 1736 Pan Am 1736 carries 378 passengers, 16 crew, and two Pan Am employees, who boarded in Tenerife and are sitting in the cockpit jumpseats. KAREN ANDERSON (Pan Am Flight 1736 Passenger/Survivor): It was a survival mode that kicked in, and it was just, "get out of that airplane." KLAAS MEURS (KLM Flight 4805 Co-Pilot/From Flight Voice . Herhold: The heritage of a 24-year-old hijacking, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Los Gatos: Hundreds still without power as Black Road repair project finishes early. Members Only. On September 5, 1986, Pan Am flight 73, a Boeing 747, departed Mumbai for New York with scheduled stops in Karchi and Frankfurt. Not hearing any more gunfire, but not knowing where the gunmen were, they went back into the dark plane to look for survivors. I ran bare feet for almost two kilometres on the tarmac. FBI Releases Age-Progressed Photos of Four Most Wanted Terrorists from Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacking, MUHAMMAD ABDULLAH KHALIL HUSSAIN AR-RAHAYYAL, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. November 12, 2003 - A status conference was held before Judge Sullivan at which the parties announced that a plea agreement has been reached in the case. Gargi Dav (pronounced Dah-VAY) is now a 34-year-old attorney who lives in Sunnyvale. Neerja may still be alive if she'd been cared for right away," says Sunshine. She went to save the kids who were stuck inside and got shot from behind. The motions hearing will go forward on May 5, 2003. The following is a ast of known survivors of the Pan American Boeing 747 involved in the Canary Island crash as provided Monday to The Associated Press by Pan Am officials: CULBERTSON, Slcohen, Green Valley, Arizona. Pan Am Flight 816 was an international flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco, California, via Tahiti, French Polynesia and Los Angeles.It was operated by a Pan Am Boeing 707-321B bearing the registration N417PA and named Clipper Winged Racer.On July 22, 1973, at 10:06 P.M. local time, the Boeing 707 took off from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete. The Pakistani military boarded the plane and the ensuing shootout killed 22 people. "It was chaotic, like a war zone, in there. Judge Sullivan also recommended that the defendant never receive parole. The powerful emotions that stick in Gargi Davs heart and mind from the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 nearly a quarter-century ago mix the horrific with the unexpectedly kind, the blessing of survival with the resolve not to be victimized again. We were ready to take what was coming, because there was nothing else we could do. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? Our responsibility is to assist U.S. citizens.. They were at every exit trying to push us out of the aircraft. PARKER, Isabella, Capistrano Bench, Calif. PENKSTAFF, Mrs. Charles San Diego, Calif. SEACRIST, Katherine, Lthaina. . Nearly 30 years after the hijack of Pan Am Flight 73 at Karachi airport, six of the plane's crew have spoken to the media for the first time. Neerja Bhanot was the only crew member to be awarded posthumous bravery awards by India and Pakistan, The Pakistani authorities released the leader of the hijackers, Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini, in September 2001, but he was quickly recaptured by the US, Safarini is 12 years into his 160-year sentence in a US prison. Amid sobs and applause from victims and relatives of those killed in the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini -- leader of an Abu Nidal terrorist . "My first instinct was to open the wing exit and slip out with as many passengers as I could, but I realised that this would leave the rest of the passengers vulnerable," then flight attendant Nupoor Abrol told BBC News. This was given to the 40-odd American passengers of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73, but not shared with the Indians, including the kin . Eventually, she moved back to New Orleans and married Joe Ferrara, whom she called the boy next door in the Times-Picayune story. Joani and Jack sat in first . The elderly woman, a resident of a village outside Bombay, had been on her way to Southern California with Kumar and Kumars aunt, Gangaben Patel. . Asked about the role of Pakistani commandos in ending the hijack episode, he said grimly, None of the people saw any commandos., When the lights went out in the plane, he said, the terrorists killed indiscriminately, firing their machine guns from less than a yard away.. This action was undertaken in coordination with a joint announcement with the U.S. Department of State that the Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the four individuals Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki , Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar all believed to have been members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization. Sherene, and another colleague Ranee Vaswani, were the last two hostages to leave the plane. Then we were told to rest our heads on our hands and bend down. December 30, 2002 - Attorneys for defendant Safarini file a reply brief in support of their motion seeking to bar the death penalty against the defendant. Meanwhile, inside the plane, 29-year-old American passenger Rajesh Kumar was pulled out of his seat and made to kneel in front of one of the open doors, with a gun to his head. Chandigarh-born Bhanot was the senior flight purser on Pan Am Flight 73 hijacked in Karachi in 1986. Fellow attendant Sunshine Vesuwala saw one of the hijackers grab a colleague, Neerja Bhanot, and put a gun to her head. I realised I couldnt stand. He said he was looking for American fighter planes," says Sherene. 'Flight 73' is a Non-fiction, based on the true events that had happened on 6th September, 1986 while Pan-Am Clipper 73 was hijacked on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan. A 7-year-old child that Bhanot helped protect went on to become a captain of a major airline and he noted that she was his inspiration. After escaping out an emergency window, Gargi and her sister, Giatri, were badly injured when they fell from wing to ground. Nobody knew what to do. December 16, 2003 - Defendant Safarini pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to all 95 counts of the superseding indictment against him in connection with the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73.