The Hijacking of Pan Am 73

Pan Am Flight 73 was a Pan American World Airways flight traveling from Bombay (BOM/VABB), India, to New York (JFK/KJFK), United States, with planned stops in Karachi (KHI/OPKC), Pakistan, and Frankfurt (FRA/EDDF), West Germany.

On the 5th of September 1986, the Boeing 747-121 operating the flight was hijacked at Karachi airport by four armed members of the Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian terrorist group. The plane, carrying 360 passengers, had just landed from Bombay. It was later determined by a grand jury that the hijackers intended to use the aircraft to release Palestinian prisoners in Cyprus and Israel.

During the hijack, over twenty passengers were killed, including citizens from India, the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico. The hijackers were captured and initially sentenced to death in Pakistan, but their sentences were subsequently reduced to life imprisonment. Neerja Bhanot, the chief flight attendant, was fatally shot and was awarded posthumously with Pakistan's Tamgha-e-Pakistan and India's Ashok Chakra Award for her heroic actions to protect the passengers.

Pan Am Flight 73, originating from Mumbai, made a scheduled stop at Karachi airport at 4:30 a.m., carrying 394 passengers, 9 infants, an American flight crew, and 13 Indian flight attendants. At Karachi, 109 passengers disembarked. As new passengers began boarding, four hijackers, disguised in Pakistan Airport Security Force uniforms, seized control of the aircraft. Two, dressed in sky-blue uniforms, approached the plane in a van with a siren and flashing lights, firing shots as they entered. The other two, one in Pakistani shalwar kameez with a grenade-filled briefcase, joined them. Concurrently, gunfire outside the aircraft resulted in the deaths of two Kuwait Airlines employees. The hijackers shot at a flight attendant's feet, compelling him to close the aircraft door. Flight attendant Neerja Bhanot, hidden from the hijackers, communicated the hijack code to the cockpit crew, who escaped through the overhead emergency hatch using the Inertial Reel Escape Device. Approximately 40 minutes after Flight 73's arrival, the hijackers took over the airliner, with the pilots' departure rendering the aircraft inoperable.

The assailants, armed with assault rifles, pistols, grenades, and explosive belts, had driven a van modified to resemble an airport security vehicle to the aircraft's boarding stairway. They were later identified as Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Safarini (alias "Mustafa"), Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim (alias "Fahad"), Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal (alias "Khalil"), and Muhammad Ahmed Al-Munawar (alias "Mansoor").

The aircraft was a Boeing 747-121 delivered to Pan Am on the 18th of June 1971, with registration N656PA (MSN 20351) with 4 x PW JTD-7A engines. It was named Clipper Live Yankee by the airline. It was later renamed and at the time of the incident was named Clipper Empress of the Seas. After the incident the aircraft was renamed Clipper New Horizons. 

Pan Am sold the aircraft to Evergreen International in 1988 and then leased it back. The aircraft was returned by Pan Am to Evergreen in April 1991. Evergreen scrapped the aircraft in 2015.