"The hijack is far from over for me and my colleagues. I told the terrorist I wanted some water. Nearly 361 passengers, ground crew and 13 flight attendants spent 16 . Hassan Abd Latif Safarini appeared in court Wednesday to begin the sentencing phase for his role as lead hijacker of Pan Am Flight 73. Lynn Hartunian, 21, who was a student at SUNY Oswego, was one of the passengers killed on Pan Am Flight 103. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. See a Message on the 25th Anniversary of the Hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73. All have coped in different ways. The Dav sisters scampered over the top of the seats to find the emergency exit as the gunfire and grenades erupted. Remembering Neerja Bhanot and Pan Am Flight 73 to New York The way I looked at life changed.I remember the terrorists dashing in from the front door near the pantry, holding Neerja at gun point. 'Mama, I'm alive:' An incredible story of survival - Daytona Beach News The other 259 people aboard the aircraft died when the bomb blew apart the jetliner Dec. 21, 1988 or were killed by the 30,000-foot fall . Read about our approach to external linking. We landed on the wing. I was wondering if the Pan Am pilots are still living, or even the cabin crew. Now eight of them - led by Sunnyvale attorney Gargi Dave, who was 10 years old during the ordeal and is due a $3 million payment -are fighting a New York law firm's efforts to wrest away 90 percent of those settlements. We just started jumping. Here's What Happened to the Hijackers of Neerja's Pan Am Flight 73 Witness is a programme of the . Nobody knew what to do. Dark Mode. 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.. We were put up in a hotel. Gargi woke up three days later. He told the four men that the airport authorities were looking for pilots to fly them where they needed to go. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Over the next few hours on the upper deck, Safarini let his guard down several times, Sunshine says. The Pakistani military boarded the plane and the ensuing shootout killed 22 people. emailStay Connected Later, as Pakistani commandos prepared to raid, the gunmen opened fire inside the cabin. 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. The Lockerbie Bombing: The Tragic True Story Of Pan Am Flight 103 TORRECH . The initial agreement between the passengers was "designed to avoid infighting," Newberger wrote. He joked and flirted, invited her to go with him to Cyprus, and promised to teach her to swim. On Neerja's Death Anniversary: A Survivor's Story From The Pan-Am Tenerife killing approx. Somehow I managed to escape from the aircraft. She fell on my shoulder, while I felt a hot ball of fire going up my feet. Among them was Kankuben Gala, 67, of Tustin, who also was in a wheelchair. Nupoor and Madhvi slipped off the edge of the wing, fracturing bones as they hit the tarmac around 20 feet (6 metres) below. Some survivors of the ill-fated PanAm flight 73 recount the sordid memories of that September day in 1986 when . All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! He said she related, It was all confusion and panic. THOMAS, Carol, New York, flight attendant. Not hearing any more gunfire, but not knowing where the gunmen were, they went back into the dark plane to look for survivors. Joe Biden's Sister Valerie Opens Up: 'We Bleed Like Every Family in America', Pregnant Woman, 25, and Man Who Recently Celebrated His 20th Wedding Anniversary Killed in Mo. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Column: Did the DOJ just say Donald Trump can be held accountable for Jan. 6? Had they not, the terrorists would have taken the flight somewhere and blown up the aircraft. Neerja Bhanot (7 September 1963 - 5 September 1986) 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 and remains the youngest recipient of India's highest peacetime gallantry . Scott Herhold is a former San Jose metro columnist. He had been on a climbing expedition in northern Pakistan to say goodbye to his elder brother Pete, a doctor who had died during . All 259 people on board were killed, and 11 individuals on the ground also died. The Pan Am 73 terrorist attack killed 20 passengers and crew and severely injured more than 100 of the 380 persons on board. The court rescheduled the hearing to continue on Wednesday, August 13, 2003, at 10:00 a.m. August 13, 2003 - Legal arguments were held before Judge Sullivan, with the attorneys for the government and the defense arguing their positions on the government's motion for the court to reconsider its ruling barring the death penalty in this case. At the conclusion of the proceeding, Judge Sullivan sentenced the defendant to three consecutive life terms plus 25 years, for a total of 160 years. A total of 112 survivors of Flight 73 had arrived in the United States late Sunday, landing at New York's Kennedy International Airport, where they were met by relatives, friends, reporters and . Massey had already exited down the slide just moments earlier, taking three unaccompanied children with him. While they relayed the events to a private FBI meeting a week after the hijack, and to a parole hearing for the lead hijacker in 2005, this is the first time they have shared details with the media. Those who knew and loved these people will never forget the moment they discovered the nearly unbearable truth. They had only genuine feelings for us and our country. The other hijackers were released from their Pakistani jail in 2008, against the wishes of India and the US. Trahan graduated from Louisiana State University with a major in theater production and moved to Orlando, Florida, where she worked at Disney Studios. There was complete chaos at the Sahar airport when we returned. A Bloody Weekend: The Terror and the Tragedy : Survivors of Pan Am Her actions led to 359 of the 380 people on-board the plane managing to live through the ordeal. He made me wear a burkha and we stepped out as the security wasnt allowing me to step out. Each is sentenced to death. The FBI is hoping to generate new leads with the release of age-progressed images of four alleged terrorists involved in the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan that killed two Americans. Making sure that victims of crimes are treated with compassion, fairness and respect. Eventually the militants threatened that, as a pilot had not materialised, a passenger would be shot every 15 minutes. "See a copy of the Government's Sentencing Memorandum, See a copy of the text of the prosecutors' allocution narrative during the sentencing proceeding, View the PowerPoint presentation shown by the prosecutors during the sentencing proceeding, Read the Government's press release concerning the sentencing, See a copy of the Transcript of Sentencing Proceeding - May 12, 2004, See a copy of the Transcript of Sentencing Proceeding - May 13, 2004, Week of July 5, 2004 - Defendant Safarini was transferred by the Bureau of Prisons to the Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colorado, also referred to as "SuperMax.". Twenty people killed, more than 100 injured. 'I still don't know how I cheated death' - The Telegraph Like I say, there are many shades of gray here. KENNER, La. My mother was trying to save me while Neerja saved other children.I wanted to use the loo. "That day, knowingly or unknowingly, we came together as a team and played our parts to the best of our ability," says Massey Casper, another steward. He spoke to Witness about that terrible disaster. 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. WILLIAMS, Norman; RO Palos Verdes, Calif. BRAGG, Robert, Howard Beach, N. Y., first officer, DONOVAN, Susanne, Harrisburg, Pa., flight attendant, GRUBBS, Victor, Centerport, L.I., captain, JACKSON, Joan, Nashville. February 10, 2003 - The attorneys for the defense and the government filed pretrial motions and notices. In the chaos and darkness, at least three doors had been opened, though it is not clear by whom. She was calm and responsible right up to the end. We were ready to take what was coming, because there was nothing else we could do. But U.S. consulate officers go out to hospitals and airports to help U.S. citizens in distress. More information will be provided to victims concerning submitting a victim impact. Pity that she was shot at. We went to all the hospitals looking for our people. It was a short jump to reach the wing of the plane. Herhold: The heritage of a 24-year-old hijacking The passenger plane crashed in a residential area of Kenner soon after . Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact the FBI or submit a tip at https://tips.fbi.gov. At the end of the proceeding, Judge Sullivan took the matter under advisement and will issue a written decision at a later date. Va., flight attendant, THOMAS, Carol, New York, flight attendant, TORRECH, Miguel, New York, flight attendant. He said images of the suspects obtained by the FBI in the year 2000 were age-progressed by the FBI Laboratory. It was blamed for a string of attacks in the 1970s and 80s, killing and wounding hundreds of people, The Pan Am crew were recognised with courage awards by the airline in 1986, the US Department of Justice in 2005 and the US attorney general in 2006. Many went for it. I cant imagine what the babys mother must have gone through then.When people began escaping, the terrorists, who initially walked in wearing airport security uniforms, changed their clothes and tried to escape with the rest of us. The spokeswoman said anyone calling the State Department for information about a permanent resident would have been advised to call the embassy representing the passengers nationality. And screams.". n the afternoon of Dec. 21, 1988, Syracuse University student Matthew Trento walked into New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, ready to make what he thought would be a routine connection between a Pan Am flight and a Piedmont plane bound for Syracuse. The Pan Am captain's name was Victor Grubbs. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. I will start with the flight a. She went back to save the kids who were stuck inside and got shot from behind. LUKER, Marilyn. He was not related to Kuverben Patel, 80, Kumars grandmother, who was also among the passengers killed. Still wearing the looks of terror, and in some cases their bloodied clothes and bandages, Southern California survivors of the hijacking of Pan American Flight 73 began coming home Monday. He was shot by the hijackers when, according to some other passengers, he objected to their rough treatment of a flight attendant. September 28, 2001 - Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini, one of the men convicted in Pakistan for his role in the hijacking of Pan Am flight 73, is captured by the FBI shortly after he was released from jail by Pakistan. Budget 2023. Survivors condemn hijacker in Pan Am massacre - CNN.com TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. A passenger informed that his mother had probably had died inside. Who was Neerja Bhanot? Remembering the Hijack Heroine on her 31st death 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. "I didn't see medical facilities at the airport besides minor first aid The hospital was several kilometres away from the airport," says Dilip. Suffice it to say there are many shades of gray. No one aboard the KLM aircraft survived, and only 71 people escaped from the Pan Am wreckage. 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 . The two girls narrowly escaped a deadly fusillade. (From top left): Nupoor, Sunshine, Sherene, Dilip. They also shed light on the last few hours of Neerja Bhanot, their colleague who died in the attack and is the subject of the new film. Just 61 people survived, all from the Pan Am jumbo jet. October 2, 2001 - Defendant Safarini is arraigned before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia and pleads not guilty to each of the counts in the indictment. Pan Am Flight 73 Another Perspective (Neerja Movie) - YouTube 32 Years After Plane Crash, 'Miracle Baby' Missy Trahan Is a Mom The Sentencing Response Form should be submitted by February 12, 2004. ", See a copy of the Sentencing Response Form, See a copy of the Victim Impact Statement Form, Read a copy of the handbook "Coping After Terrorism: Information for Victims and Survivors of Pan Am Flight #73 Hijacking, May 12-13, 2004 - A sentencing proceeding was held before Judge Sullivan, attended by more than 50 victims and family members, many of whom provided powerful and emotional statements during the two-day proceeding. She informed the pilots about the hijack and thats how the pilots could escape. He repeatedly led either Sunshine or Sherene at gunpoint up to the upper deck cockpit, using them as human shields while he peeked round them to have a look outside. He stopped me from writing. Sherene and Sunshine were the cabin crew who spent the most time with lead hijacker Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini. We had no choice but to follow the terrorists instructions. Contact Scott Herhold at sherhold@mercurynews.com or 408-275-0917. Documents on this page are presented in Portable Document Format (PDF) and a PDF reader is required for viewing. Also known as Fatah-The Revolutionary Council, it is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and the European Union. A form was provided for victims to let the prosecution team know if they are interested in attending and/or speaking at the sentencing proceeding. Fellow attendant Sunshine Vesuwala saw one of the hijackers grab a colleague, Neerja Bhanot, and put a gun to her head. Victim impact statements should be submitted to the prosecution team by March 1, 2004. These charges will serve as the basis for the upcoming criminal trial of defendant Safarini. Age: 40Profession: ArtistI was 12 then and travelling with my mother Trupti Dalal. We were aware they took hold of Rajesh, a US national. I could see the terrorists walking up and down the aisle, trying to negotiate. Courtesy Gargi Dave -- A ten-year-old Gargi Dave, left, is kissed and comforted by her mother, Niru in the Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Even after 30 years, he breaks down at the memory. They are breaking this silence now, they say, because they want to honour and acknowledge the vital roles played by all on board, most of whom are not known to the public. My co-passenger, a German national, woke me up informing that our plane was hijacked. "The pilots evacuating the airplane meant that we were not at the mercy of the terrorists, who could have instructed the plane to be flown into a building, or even blown up whilst in flight.". When Gala was wheeled off the plane in Los Angeles, clutching her X-rays, her blue polyester slacks and a purple sweater showed the dirt and oil marks of her leap. How I connect my mother to Neerja is that they both died saving children and at the same time. March 27, 1977: The Worst Air Disaster Ever | WIRED He caught me doing that and asked whether I was a journalist. On Pan Am 1736, seven of the 16-member flight crew, along with two company employees and 61 passengers, survived, although nine later died of their injuries. Security forces laid siege to the New York-bound plane for 16 hours at Karachi airport after the jet was taken over by Palestinian militants on 5 September 1986. Remorseful Pan Am hijacker sentenced to 160 years August 29, 1991 - A 126-count indictment is returned under seal (i.e., in secret) by a grand jury in the District of Columbia. HIRANO, Sachiko, New York, fight attendant. Neerja Bhanot, The Hero Of The Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacking 50 years later, witnesses, families recall Flight 214 crash Shahs family members, whom he had sent to Bombay to visit friends and relatives, were apparently uninjured. At Tenerife's Los Rodeos Airport, a KLM 747 initiated takeoff without air traffic control clearance and smashed into a Pan Am 747 waiting on the runway, resulting in 583 fatalities. But, Pan Am Flight 214 . The Indian-born couple had taken their children on a vacation to Bombay and were returning home when the aircraft was commandeered. We don't support landscape mode. It was his birthday and he was taking revenge. I was part of the Avishakar Academy Of Performing Arts. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Pan Am flight 103 | Overview, Crash, Victims, & Facts Calling the fight sad and disheartening, Newberger said the sharing clause was originally put in the agreement to stop infighting among the 178 plaintiffs. Mrs. Georges husband was one of several survivors who were brought off a Pan American World Airways jetliner at Los Angeles International Airport in wheelchairs. During their interviews with the BBC, they stressed that there was no single hero that day, that crew members not interviewed played an equally important role, and that they want survivors of terror attacks like 9/11 and Paris to know that life goes on. I knew if I didnt speak up for myself, this would haunt me for the rest of my life.. At least 29 other passengers, including 24 American citizens, were being treated at U.S. military hospitals in West Germany. As the shooting began to die down, said George, a flight attendant called out that an emergency exit was open. Her older sister is a physician with a practice in Southern California. The powerful emotions that stick in Gargi Dav's 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 . These were the 2 cockpit observers who may as well be considered passengers, 2 flight attendants, and 12 passengers. I started running towards the terminus.
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