The Hero of the Hijacking of Pan Am 73 1986 by Four terrorists

First the Hero

Remembering Neerja Bhanot on hijacked Pan Am Flight 73. She died heroically, saving Pan Am passengers from terrorists on Sept. 5, 1986. From Panam

Neerja Bhanot was senior flight purser on the Empress of the Seas, a  Pan Am 747 hijacked at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi by four armed men from the Abu Nidal organization en route to Frankfurt and New York. During a 17-hour ordeal, she helped the three-member cockpit crew escape in order to ground the plane so it could not be flown. Bhanot hid passports of passengers so the hijackers could not determine passenger nationalities. She also managed to open the emergency door assisting a number of passengers to escape from the plane. As the hijackers opened fiire on passengers and crew, Neerja Bhanot lost her life shielding three children from bullets.

In 2016 a film entitled “Neerja” was released, portraying her herioc life.

The FBI Washington Field Office announced today the release of age-progressed photographs of four alleged hijackers charged in the United States with the September 5, 1986 attack of Pan American World Airways Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan: Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar. These images were created by the FBI Laboratory using age-progression technology and original photographs obtained by the FBI in the year 2000.

The attack on Pan Am Flight 73 resulted in the murder of 20 passengers and crew, including two Americans; the attempted murder of 379 passengers and crew; and the wounding of more than 100 individuals on board.

This announcement is in coordination with the U.S. Department of State Rewards for Justice Program, which is offering a reward of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the alleged hijackers. Each of these individuals is believed to have been a member of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), previously on the U.S. Department of State’s list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Each suspect is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List.

WADOUD MUHAMMAD HAFIZ AL-TURKI

JAMAL SAEED ABDUL RAHIM

MUHAMMAD ABDULLAH KHALIL HUSSAIN AR-RAHAYYAL

MUHAMMAD AHMED AL-MUNAWAR

Anyone with information regarding these terrorists is asked to contact the FBI, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or submit a tip on tips.fbi.gov (tipsters can remain anonymous).

Individuals on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List have been indicted by sitting federal grand juries in various jurisdictions in the United States for the crimes reflected on their wanted posters. The indictments currently listed on the posters allow them to be arrested and brought to justice. Additional information regarding the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists program can be found at fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists.