Neerja Bhanot, A Lady Worth Remembering.

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Neerja Bhanot, 7 September 1963 – 5 September 1986,was a purser for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was shot and killed while saving passengers from terrorists on board a hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986. Posthumously, she became the youngest recipient of India's highest peacetime military award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra.
Neerja Bhanot was born in Chandigarh, India, the daughter of Rama Bhanot and Harish Bhanot, a Mumbai-based journalist. She received her early schooling at Sacred Heart Sen. Sec. School, Chandigarh till class 5. After moving to Mumbai, she completed her schooling in Bombay Scottish School and continued to St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. It was in Mumbai, where she was first spotted for a modelling assignment which helped her modelling career to take off. Bhanot applied for a flight attendant job with Pan Am 73, when it decided to have an all Indian crew for its Asian clients, and upon selection, went to Miami for training as a flight attendant but returned as purser.
The hijackers were told to be from the Abu Nidal Organisation. She also posthumously received multiple awards for her courage from the United States government. In 2001, Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, one of the hijackers who shot the passengers, was captured by the FBI in Bangkok. He is currently serving a 160-year prison term in Colorado. Four others escaped from Adyala Jail in January 2008 when it was attacked by terrorists. The FBI announced a $5 million bounty on their heads. In January 2010, Pakistani intelligence officials announced that a drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal region had killed one of the released hijackers, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim. His death was never confirmed and he remains on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists and Rewards for Justice Program lists.
bravery, the Government of India posthumously awarded Bhanot the Ashoka Chakra Award (India's highest gallantry award for bravery in the face of the enemy during peace time), and Bhanot became its youngest recipient. In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her. With insurance money and an equal contribution from Pan Am for using the brand Pan Am in the title, her parents set up the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust. The trust presents two awards every year, one for a flight crew member, worldwide, who acts beyond the call of duty and another, the Neerja Bhanot Award, to an Indian woman who when faced with social injustice such as dowry or desertion perseveres and then helps other women in similar social distress. The award includes a sum of INR 1,50,000, a trophy and a citation.
Postal Stamp released by Indian Postal Service on October 8, 2004, commemorating Neerja Bhanot sacrifice and services to the nation. Bhanot's brother Aneesh went to Washington, D.C. in 2005 to receive the 'Justice for Crimes Award' awarded posthumously to her as part of the 'Annual Crime Rights Week' at a ceremony held at the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia. In 2006, she and the other Pan Am Flight 73 flight attendants and Pan Am's flight director for Pakistan were awarded the Special Courage award by the United States Department of Justice. The civil aviation ministry of India conferred an honor on Bhanot posthumously on 18 February 2010 in New Delhi on the occasion of the launch of the celebrations of the centenary of Indian aviation. Sources (Google Pictures) (Wikipedia) (India Today)

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