Pan Am purser Neerja Bhanot was shot while helping passengers escape the hijacked Flight 73 at Karachi on 5 September 1986.
Pan Am 73 on the Apron at Karachi
On 5 September 1986, four gunmen seized Pan Am Flight 73 on the ground at Karachi during its stop on the Bombay to New York route. Neerja Bhanot was senior flight purser. The cockpit crew had left the aircraft, and she took charge of the passengers and remaining cabin crew.
She and the other flight attendants collected and hid American passports. The US Justice Department records that the hijackers had planned to execute Americans to support their demands.
The siege lasted about 16 hours by the Justice Department's count and about 17 by other accounts. It ended when the hijackers opened fire with automatic weapons and grenades. Flight attendants opened emergency exits and got passengers out. At least 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Neerja Bhanot was shot and killed, and accounts say she was shielding three children.
Chandigarh, Bombay and the 1987 Award
She was born in Chandigarh on 7 September 1963 to Harish and Rama Bhanot and grew up there and in Bombay. She died two days short of her 23rd birthday.
India awarded her the Ashoka Chakra in 1987. The official roll names her Neerja Mishra. Pakistan and the Flight Safety Foundation also honoured her, and in 2006 the US Justice Department recognised her among the flight attendants of Flight 73.
What the citation recorded
Summary, not the official text: the official awards page lists Neerja Mishra as a posthumous recipient in 1987, with no citation wording in the archived page. The Tribune, in a 1999 article, reports that the citation described her loyalty to the passengers of the aircraft as "a lasting tribute to the finest qualities of the human spirit."