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Pan Am Flight 73

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Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked on September 5, 1986, by four armed men of the Abu Nidal organization. The Boeing 747 with 379 on board was preparing to depart Karachi International Airport in Pakistan for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, New York. At least 20 died during the hijacking, including citizens of the United States, Pakistan, India and Mexico and over 120 were wounded in the assault. The incident began as passengers boarded the aircraft for the flight which had originated in Mumbai, India, and was scheduled to fly to Frankfurt, Germany and then to New York. The four hijackers were dressed as Karachi airport security guards and were armed with assault rifles, pistols, grenades and plastic explosive belts. At about 06:00 a.m. local time, the hijackers drove a van that had been modified to look like an airport security vehicle through a security checkpoint up to one of the boarding stairways to Pan Am Flight 73.

The hijackers stormed up the stairways into the plane, fired shots from an automatic weapon and seized control of the aircraft. Flight attendants were able to alert the cockpit crew using intercom, allowing the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer to escape through a hatch in the cockpit, effectively grounding the aircraft.

During the following 16 hours, Zayd Hassan Safarini, the Jordanian leader of the hijackers, demanded the return of the flight crew to fly the aircraft to Larnaca, Cyprus, where he wanted to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners being detained in Cyprus. During negotiations between Safarini and Pakistani authorities, Safarini threatened to kill all passengers.

After seizing control of the aircraft, Safarini ordered the flight attendants to collect the passports from passengers. The flight attendants complied, but risking their own lives, they surreptitiously declined to collect some of the United States passports and hid other United States passports from the hijackers. After the passports had been collected, Safarini walked through the cabin, asking passengers about their nationalities. When he arrived at the seat of Rajesh Kumar, a 29-year-old California resident who had recently been naturalized as an American citizen, Safarini ordered Kumar to go to the front doorway of the aircraft and to kneel with his hands behind his head.

At about 10:00 a.m., Safarini became angry about the delay in the arrival of a new flight crew and he threatened to shoot Kumar if something was not done within 15 minutes. Shortly thereafter he shot Kumar in the head and pushed him out the door onto the tarmac below. Pakistani personnel on the tarmac reported that Kumar was still breathing when he was placed in an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital in Karachi.

As nightfall arrived, the lights on the aircraft began to dim and flicker, due to a mechanical failure. At Safarini's instruction, the hijackers herded the passengers and crew members into the center section of the aircraft. Safarini and another hijacker positioned themselves in front of passengers in the right and left aisles, while the other hijackers positioned themselves behind the crowd of passengers and crew in the right and left aisles. On Safarini's signal, after the hijackers recited a martyrdom prayer in Arabic, and after the lights on the aircraft had gone out, the four hijackers opened fire on the passengers and crew, and threw grenades among them. At least 20 passengers and crew died during this assault and scores were injured. Most of the survivors escaped through two doors of the plane which were forced open when the firing began. Many passengers and crew were forced to jump from the wing of the aircraft onto the tarmac.

Killed in the incident were Rajesh Kumar, 29, and Surendra Manubhai Patel, 50 (both from USA); Jose Alvarez Lamar Nunez, 57, and Ricardo Munoz Rosales, 28 (both from Mexico); Syed Nesar Ahmad, 43, Imran Rizvi, 17, and Meherjee Minocher Kharas, 28 (all from Pakistan); and from India, Kuverben Patel, 81, Kala Singh, 36, Seetharamiah Krishnaswamy, 61, Trupti Dalal, 28, Krishna Kumari Gadde, 28, Neerja Bhanot, 23, Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, 48, Boby Thomachen Mulloor, 7, Thomachen Thomas Mulloor, 30, Aleyamma Scaria Nagatholy, 39, Ramakant Naik, 55, Rupal Desai, 26, and Kodiyattu K. Kurian, 25.

On September 28, 2001, Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini was captured by the FBI in Bangkok after he was released in Pakistan and was on his way back to Jordan. He was taken to the United States where in 2004 he was sentenced to a 160 year prison term. At the plea proceeding, Safarini admitted that he and his fellow hijackers committed the offenses as members of the Abu Nidal Organization, also called the ANO, a foreign terrorist organization. Safarini and the other hijackers were initially prosecuted in Pakistan and convicted of numerous crimes pertaining to the hijacking.

Significant Events

External links

For details about the Pan Am 73 criminal case in Federal Court in D.C. see—

For more details about the civil suit see— For more details about the awards presented to the Pan Am 73 flight attendants and director see—

 

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