Pan Am Clipper Empress of the Seas, Tail Number N656 PA
September 5, 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of an unimaginable event that occurred at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan. In the wee hours of the morning, four Abu Nidal suicide terrorists boarded Pan Am flight 73 during its scheduled stopover, en route from Bombay (now Mumbai) before continuing on to Frankfurt, Germany, and New York.
Sixteen hours later, of the 379 passengers, infants, and crew—including 78 United States citizens—aboard the Pan American World Airways Clipper Empress of the Seas, 20 would be killed and more than 100 wounded before the ordeal would end with the capture of the four gunmen.
The Pan Am Museum Foundation pays tribute this September to all those who perished or were injured in this senseless act of terrorism. We remember the survivors, some still with physical scars, and honor their resiliency in moving past their harrowing ordeal. And we express our sincere gratitude to the Pan Am flight attendants who showed tremendous courage, helping passengers throughout the long ordeal and in escaping the aircraft during the final onslaught.
Originating in Bombay, this trip was especially significant to the flight attendants that morning. No longer probationary flight attendants with silver wings, the crew wore their newly acquired gold wings. It was to be their first time leaving home base, without supervision, as fully qualified Pan Am flight attendants.
“On behalf of the entire Pan Am crew, it’s a pleasure to welcome you on board Pan Am flight 73 to Karachi,” Senior Purser Neerja Bhanot was heard saying over the microphone, just as she had done during the preceding six months with a Pan Am in-flight supervisor on board. In fact, Bhanot was to celebrate her 23rd birthday just two days hence, on September 7th, when the crew was scheduled to return home to Bombay.
The stopover in Karachi was like any other that early morning. The aircraft was parked on the apron, rather than at a gate at the terminal. In 1986, the Karachi airport used buses to transport passengers and mobile stairs for boarding. The passengers in transit from Bombay were already on board, but as the last busload of passengers from Karachi began stepping off the bus and looked up the tall stairway to the front boarding door of the aircraft, they were shocked to see a man wielding an automatic rifle while clutching the neck of a flight attendant. The astonished group quickly pushed back onto the bus and screamed at the driver to race back to the terminal. These fortunate souls would be spared the ordeal that was about to unfold.
From the Pan Am Timetable, Pan Am 73’s scheduled flight sectors from Bombay (now Mumbai) to New York, with stops in Karachi and Frankfurt.
In a critical failure of Karachi’s airport security procedures, four hijackers, dressed in replicated airport security uniforms, carrying authentic-looking security badges, and riding in a van they had meticulously modified to appear official, had been allowed through the airport’s security checkpoint without being challenged. Armed with assault rifles, pistols, grenades, and belts of explosives, they drove directly to the aircraft and boarded. Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini, the Jordanian leader of the gang, removed his shirt to expose an explosive suicide belt.
Thomas Rauber, a German architect on the flight, was among those interviewed by the New York Times writer Francis X. Clines two days later. Raber said he found it peculiar that the gang leader suddenly stripped off his shirt to display his chest and grenade-bedecked waist. “It was quite unreal, actually. Maybe he wanted to be Rambo,” Rauber said.
The hijackers soon revealed their affiliation with the terrorist group Abu Nidal and their plan for the aircraft: to fly to Larnaca, Cyprus, and then on to Israel, where in both locations they would free fellow militants who were incarcerated on terror charges. As they were brandishing weapons and frightening passengers throughout the cabin, the hijackers were unaware that one of the flight attendants was calling the cockpit crew via the aircraft interphone system, alerting them by using a hijack code. Shortly thereafter, a second hijacker forced flight attendant Sunshine Vesuwala to take him to the cockpit.
Following established emergency procedures, the captain, first officer, and flight engineer had already made their escape through the cockpit escape hatch, down 30 feet onto the ground by way of inertia-reel cables. This safety protocol of leaving the aircraft without qualified personnel to fly the plane was deemed necessary to avoid possible greater danger to passengers and crew that might occur when in the air and to allow negotiations as well as the potential for tactical teams to retake the aircraft.
Decades later, six members of the crew participated in an interview with Megha Mohan of BBC News. Sunshine recalled the situation. “I noticed immediately that the escape devices in the cockpit had been deployed. I noticed that the evacuation hatch on the ceiling of the cockpit was open, but I pretended not to. I wanted to give the pilots time to escape in case they were still in the process of climbing down the ropes outside the plane. The hijacker didn’t seem to know much about the plane so he didn’t look for it.” Reflecting on the cockpit’s escape, she added, “Many have criticized the pilots for leaving the rest of the crew behind, but I was relieved when I saw the pilots were gone, as we were all safer on the ground than we would be in the air. And in any case, at least the three pilots were safe. Three lives would be saved.”
Dilip Bidichandani, a flight attendant who had also participated in the BBC News interview, felt strongly that the pilots’ escape actually saved more lives. “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.”
The BBC story compiled from the interview, Inside a Hijack: the Unheard Stories of the Pan Am 73 Crew was published March 31, 2016.
Sunshine Vesuwala
Dilip Bidichandani
Outside, Pan Am’s Pakistan Country Director, Viraf Daroga, used a megaphone to begin negotiations with the hijackers. He told the four men that the airport authorities were looking for pilots to fly them where they needed to go.
Showing frustration that negotiations were taking too long, Safarini ordered Rajesh Kumar, a 29-year-old California resident and recently naturalized American citizen, to the front left-side door of the plane. Mr. Kumar was forced to kneel with his hands behind his head—in full view of the other passengers and those on the ground—while Safarini held a gun to his head.
After several hours, Safarini escalated his threat, warning that he would kill Mr. Kumar unless a crew was provided quickly. Shortly thereafter, Safarini shot Mr. Kumar in the head and shoved his body out of the aircraft, hitting the concrete over 15 feet below. Mr. Daroga stated later that Mr. Kumar was still breathing when he rushed to his side; however, he died after being rushed by ambulance to the hospital.
Meherjee Kharas
Safarini then demanded someone who could operate the cockpit radio in order to establish radio communications with the Pakistani authorities.
A 25-year-old Pan Am aircraft mechanic, Meherjee Kharas, had been on board during the transit to attend to routine checks, including the radio. Trapped aboard, he was forced at gunpoint to operate the aircraft’s radio. Throughout the hours that ensued, he maintained the line of communication between Safarini, Mr. Daroga, and Pakistani authorities.
While Sarafini was making his demands over the radio, the passengers had been herded into the middle of the aircraft, crowded into seats and on every inch of floor space. The terrorists forced everyone to keep their hands up and heads down for extended periods of time. Flight attendants comforted passengers, especially the eight unaccompanied minors on board.
About four hours into the siege, the hijackers began trying to identify the Americans and ordered several of the flight attendants to collect the passengers’ passports. Since the Abu Nidal Organization was opposed to U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East, and having witnessed the execution of Mr. Kumar, who was an American, the flight attendants stealthily hid the American passports under seats and in a trash bin. It was a British citizen, however, Michael Thexton, who was next called forward by Safarini. Mr. Thexton, an accounting teacher who lived in London, spent the remaining hours of the ordeal kneeling on the floor at the front of the plane.
Hours passed. Safarini continued to demand a flight crew and safe passage to reach Cyprus. A deadline of 7 p.m. had come and gone; a new deadline of 11 p.m. was established. Meanwhile, Mr. Daroga was receiving help from other airlines. Because the Pan Am phone lines were jammed with concerned family and friends calling to learn the status of their loved ones, Lufthansa Airlines offered the use of its phone system for Daroga to maintain contact with Pan Am in New York.
When a 747’s main engines are not running, the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) in the aircraft’s tail can be turned on to supply power. The APU is a small gas turbine engine that drives two generators to provide power to the aircraft’s electrical system. Like an automobile, it burns fuel (specifically, jet fuel), and requires oil for lubrication.
Daroga, technicians in New York, and local airline personnel worried that the 747’s APU, which was known to have a small oil leak, would eventually fail. As the sun went down, they became even more concerned, certain that without power the closed-up aircraft would not only become unbearably hot but also would be plunged into total darkness. Daroga wanted to have exterior lights turned on, but Safarini was against any suggestions by the outside authorities. Instead, he demanded a cockpit crew to fly the airplane to Cyprus.
Captain Hart Langer, Captain Ed Cywinski, and Check Engineer Bob Huetti, who were in various countries at the time, volunteered to fly the hijackers to their chosen destination, under the condition that the passengers would be released without further harm. After travel arrangements were made, they boarded a Swissair flight from Zurich to Karachi.
Hours into the hijacking, the lubrication oil in the APU reached a dangerously low level. One of its two sensors automatically switched the APU off. The lights flickered, the battery-powered emergency lights came on, and shortly thereafter began to dim as as their battery power ran down. The Boeing was plunged into pitch darkness and pandemonium erupted.
“I knew the end was coming when the lights went dark and I pushed the children down on the floor and covered them with my body,” passenger Mrs. Zeba Hamid told New York Times reporter Clines.
The four hijackers tossed grenades and began shooting their automatic weapons indiscriminately. Passengers and crew managed to open two doors on the right side of the aircraft (designated as R3 and R4). The escape slide on door R4 deployed correctly; door R3 opened over the wing, a route designed for escapees to slide off the trailing edge of the wing. However, in the havoc that ensued in the darkness, many passengers and crew could not see where to go—or the distance to the ground—and jumped blindly onto the concrete below.
Serious injuries occurred, including broken limbs and crushed legs and feet. One 10-year-old American girl, Gargi Dave, hit her head on the concrete, suffering severe trauma which left her in a coma for three days. Mrs. Hamid managed to get out on the wing with her children and somehow successfully lower them to the ground.
Eighteen passengers were mortally wounded, and over 100 required immediate medical attention. The seriously wounded were flown to Frankfurt for medical care. Some of the wounded were able to fly home to Bombay or onward to their destination, accompanied by volunteer Pan Am flight attendants and other staff.
Witnesses later told of seeing Purser Bhanot being shot while shielding children and leading them to the escape slide. Flight attendants Sunshine Vesuwala and Dilip Bidichandani found her conscious but bleeding heavily from being shot in the hip. They carried her to the slide at door R4, and after sending her down, they jumped out themselves. They said Bhanot was still alive when she arrived at the hospital.
Vesuwala, Bidichandani, and others on the crew carry the burden of wondering if more could have been done to save Bhanot. During their previously mentioned interview with BBC News, Sunshine said, “It was chaotic, like a war zone, in there. Neerja may still be alive if she’d been cared for right away.” Dilip added, “I didn’t see medical facilities at the airport besides minor first aid… the hospital was several kilometers away from the airport. Neerja was put into the ambulance without a stretcher.” The hospital was also a chaotic scene as the medical staff dealt with the mass casualty event. During the BBC News interview, Flight attendant Sherene Pavan could not help but ponder the circumstances, saying. “Neerja’s life may have been saved were conditions in the hospital better.”
The volunteer cockpit crew was enroute to Karachi when Pan Am contacted the Swissair aircraft, advising them that the hijackers were in custody. Upon arrival, the crew boarded the Pan Am 747, witnessing the horrific aftermath of the carnage that had taken place. A volunteer team of mechanics arrived from London and were faced with the formidable task of making the damaged aircraft airworthy. Five days later, Captains Langer and Cywinski, with Engineer Huetti, flew the airplane to Frankfurt, where they fueled the plane before continuing back to JFK. The aircraft was eventually returned to scheduled service.
The U.S. Air Force sent a medically equipped C-141 aircraft to evacuate the most seriously injured victims from Karachi. After landing in Frankfurt, the U.S. citizens were transferred to U.S. military hospitals in Landsduhl or Wiesbaden, and non-U.S. citizens were treated at local civilian hospitals in the Frankfurt area. Some of the survivors elected to travel back to Bombay and were accompanied by volunteer flight attendants. Two 747s with volunteer crews were quickly dispatched to Karachi to transport Flight 73’s remaining passengers to Frankfurt, or onward to the U.S. Arrangements for travel to other final destinations was managed by other volunteer Pan Am staff.
From its early days of pioneering international air travel, Pan Am had become well-acquainted with the hazards involved. The airline and its people were widely respected for their commitment to evacuating Americans from countries suffering from war, political upheaval, and natural disasters, as well as the tragedy of aircraft accidents. Its employees were selfless about providing compassionate care for survivors and their families. Dozens of volunteers met the flight from Frankfurt upon its arrival in New York, each person dedicated to supporting and assisting the victims in any way possible. It was not until ten years later, in October, 1996, that all U.S. airlines were required by the U.S. government to maintain Care Teams for such situations.
During a news conference at Pan Am’s headquarters in New York City, Martin Shugrue, Vice Chairman of Pan Am and a former Navy pilot, responded to public criticism of the actions of the cockpit crew by stating that the aircraft’s captain, and two other cockpit members who escaped through an emergency hatch after being notified about the hijacking, followed a “long-established Pan Am and industry procedure.” He went on to say, “This was a textbook execution of what they are trained and taught to do. The primary object is to immobilize the craft – turn it into a building, The crew did exactly what it was supposed to do. Any hijacking situation is best handled on the ground – not in the air – where we can have the forces best needed to support the hostages. In a situation like this, every expert counsels ‘Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Buy time, buy time, buy time.”
By all accounts, the Pakistani commandos had been staging about half a mile from the aircraft. Reports support witnesses’ testimony that the commandos did not swarm the aircraft, and in fact, did not appear until the carnage was over and the hijackers attempted to escape in the crowd.
Three of the hijackers were apprehended while trying to escape during the mass evacuation confusion. Safarini avoided capture during the melee, but he was found shortly thereafter and arrested in a local hospital, by all reports still wearing the explosives belt.
FLIGHT 73 HIJACKERS ARREST AND INCARCERATION TIMELINE
July, 1988: a special court in Pakistan convicted the four main terrorists and an accomplice, sentencing them to death. Their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.
September 2001: the Pakistani authorities released the leader of the hijackers, Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini. On September 28, 2001, while in Bangkok, he was subsequently intercepted and arrested by the FBI.
May 12, 2004: at Safarini’s sentencing before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan, United States District Court Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, U.S.A., a translated transcript of a portion of the radio communication during the hostage situation in Karachi was read. Defendant Safarini threatened:
I possess enough bombs to blow up the plane and all of its occupants. We will not spare anybody in the plane, whether young or old. If you do not cooperate, we will not leave anyone. I am the leader of this operation.
Safarini continued:
We do not bargain, we do not seek a truce, we do not negotiate. We are suicidal and capable of blowing ourselves up at any moment. We are carrying bombs on our bodies. I will kill all of them and I will not show mercy toward any of them. I will kill all, including the children, old people, the women, young and old. We are merciless people. We do not know tolerance.
More than 50 victims and family members from around the world attended the sentencing, many providing powerful, emotional and compelling testimony about the devastation caused by this terrorist attack.
On September 5, 1986, eleven-year-old Preeti Bhuva was one of seven unaccompanied minors on Flight 73. She was returning home to Los Angeles to enter sixth grade after spending the summer with family in Bombay. Eighteen years later, Ms. Bhuva joined other survivors of the hijacking who gave Victim Impact Statements at the sentencing of Zayad Al Safarini.
Portions of Ms. Bhuva’s testimony are as follows:
“After the plane landed in Karachi, Pakistan, I was talking to an off-duty flight attendant, Massey Casper… Then hijackers came storming down the aisle demanding passengers to put their hands up. Soon after, when passports were being collected, Massey told the flight attendant not to collect mine. I didn’t realize at the time that the flight attendants were saving my life, as I had a U.S. passport.
“I remember passengers screaming… As soon as the doors to the plane opened, passengers jammed the doorways trying to get out. I was not too far from the [R4] door and managed myself to get out, landing on the slide… I’ll never forget the people with blood from their injuries, or blood from other people that they had on them.
“The hijacking has affected me emotionally. I am also very reluctant to fly. Safarini is an inhumane individual… I’m glad to see justice is being served to sentence him for life, though I feel there is no sentence severe enough to punish him for the pain and suffering he has caused all of us.”
Safarini was sentenced to 160 years in prison and is currently serving that sentence at ADX Florence, Colorado federal correctional institute, which is a super maximum facility.
“The severity of the sentence imposed against Safarini underscores the brutality of his terrorist acts against innocent civilian lives,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “We are honored by the dignity of the victims and their families, who have traveled to this sentencing proceeding from near and far, to advise the court and the world how these atrocious acts have impacted their lives. This case demonstrates the commitment of the United States to secure justice for the victims of terrorist acts, no matter how long it takes.”
2008: the remaining three hijackers were released from their incarceration in Pakistan, against the wishes of India and the United States.
As of September 5th, 2026: the three at-large hijackers (and a fifth accomplice who was instrumental in the planning but did not board the plane) remain on the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists list, with a $5 million reward being offered though the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program.
Neerja’s cremation took place on what would have been her twenty-third birthday. Her death became a national tragedy. The government of India posthumously honored her with the prestigious Ashoka Chakra award, the highest peace-time Indian military decoration — awarded for valor, courageous action, or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. Neerja remains one of India’s most revered national heroes.
Meherjee Kharas was only 25-years old and, as an aircraft mechanic for Pan Am, had a bright future ahead. He was going about his job, conducting equipment checks on the aircraft during its stop in Karachi, when the hijackers siezed control. Mr. Kharas was identified as someone who could operate the radio in the cockpit to enable communications between the hijackers and the negotiators outside. Held at gunpoint, Meherjee courageously manned the radio throughout the 16-hour ordeal. He was shot and killed by the hijacker when the aircraft lost power.
The Pan Am flight attendant crew and Mr. Daroga, some of whom are pictured below, were recognized with courage awards by Pan Am in 1986, the US Department of Justice in 2005, and the 2006 Special Courage Award from the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime.
Viraf Daroga
Nupoor (Chakravarty) Abrol
Madhavi Bahuguna
Neerja Bhanot
Dilip Bidichandani
Massey Casper
Cecilia (Moniz) Da Silva
Samira (Mistry) Goode
Marian (D’Costa) Julien
Astrid (Fernandes) Lobo
Lillian (Netto) Nazareth
Maryanne (D’Souza) Nigli
Sherene (Viccajee) Pavan
Nitin Salgaonkar
Ranee (Advani) Vaswani
Sunshine Vesuwalla
Louella (Soares) Walker
Former Pan Am flight attendant and training instructor Wendy Sue Knecht knew all the cabin crew members well. She had been one of their trainers in London and had spent the previous six months living in Bombay, flying with the crews as an in-flight supervisor during their probationary period. Speaking about her former students, Knecht says:
“Unwavering courage. Instinctive judgment. Bravery in the face of unimaginable terror. These qualities cannot be taught in any training academy. They come from character, integrity, compassion, and grace. Forty years later, the courage of this crew and other employees still inspires us, their sacrifice still humbles us, and their legacy reminds us that true heroism is measured not by how people die, but by how they choose to live—and to serve others.”
IN TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE AND HEROIC PAN AM EMPLOYEES WHOSE IMMEDIATE AND ONGOING ACTIONS IN THE MOST DANGEROUS OF CIRCUMSTANCES
HELPED SAVE THE LIVES OF SO MANY
DURING THE VIOLENT TERRORIST TAKEOVER
OF PAN AM FLIGHT 73
WHILE ON THE GROUND AT JINNA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
KARACHI, PAKISTAN
SEPTEMBER 5, 1986
OPERATING BOMBAY-BASED
CABIN CREW
Neerja (Misra) Bhanot, Senior Purser
Lillian Netto, Purser
Ranee Advani, Flight Attendant
Dilip Bidichandani, Flight Attendant
Nupoor Chakravaty, Flight Attendant
Marian D’Costa, Flight Attendant
Maryanne D’Souza, Flight Attendant
Astrid Fernandes, Flight Attendant
Cecilia Moniz, Flight Attendant
Sherene (Viccajee) Pavan, Flight Attendant
Nitin Salgaonkar, Flight Attendant
Louella Soares, Flight Attendant
Sunshine Vesuwalla, Flight Attendant
COCKPIT CREW
William Kianka, Captain
Conway Dodge, Sr., First Officer
John Ridgeway, Flight Engineer
PAN AM KARACHI PERSONNEL
Viraf Daroga, Director, Pakistan
Meherjee Kharas, Aircraft Mechanic
PASSRIDING CABIN CREW WHO ASSISTED THE OPERATING CREW
Madhavi Bahuguna, Flight Attendant
Massey Casper, Flight Attendant
Samira Mistry, Flight Attendant
IN MEMORY AND HONOR OF THOSE PAN AM EMPLOYEES AND
FLIGHT 73 PASSENGERS MURDERED BY TERRORISTS
DURING THE VIOLENT TAKEOVER OF PAN AM FLIGHT 73
WHILE ON THE GROUND AT JINNA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
KARACHI, PAKISTAN
SEPTEMBER 5, 1986
Neerja Bhanot, Senior Purser
Meherjee Kharas, Aircraft Mechanic
PAN AM EMPLOYEES
PAN AM FLIGHT 73 PASSENGERS
Syed Nasar Ahmed, 30, US legal permanent resident, who taught at Harvard University and was the father of a five-year-old daughter and married to a United States citizen
Trupti Dalal, 28
Rupal Desai, 25
Krishna Kumari Gadde, 28
Seetharmiah Krishnaswamy, 61
Rajesh Kumar, 29, recently naturalized US citizen and resident of California, traveling with his grandmother
Jose “Pepe” Alvarez Lamar, Mexico, employed by a US company, working in India on an off-shore drilling rig
Bogby Thomachen Mellor, 7, India
Thomachen Thoms Mellor, 30, India,
ho is believed to be the father of Bogby Thomachen Mellor
Aleyamma Scaria Nagatholy, 39
Ramakant Naik, 55
Ricardo Nunoz, Mexico, employed by a US company
Kuverben Patel, 80, India, the grandmother of murder victim Rajesh Kumar
Surendra Patel, 50, US, the father of three children, then aged 14, 12 and 7, two of whom were next to him on the aircraft when he was shot.
Imran Rizvi, 17, India, who was the son of the US Consul General’s Senior Commercial Analyst in Karachi
Kala Singh, 38, India, US Resident, who was traveling with her husband and two of her four American-born children
Meera Sundresan, India
Dr. Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, 48, India, world renowned scientist who was en route to New York to attend a UNESCO-sponsored conference in the United States
