On September 5, 1986, a 22-year-old flight attendant held off a group of armed hijackers. Her name was Neerja Bhanot, and when the attackers boarded Pan Am Flight 73, she shouted a secret code to the pilots to allow them to escape. From there, she spent 17 hours on a full plane with the hijackers, hiding the passports of foreign passengers, to keep them from being targeted. When the power began to fail, the hijackers began to open fire and set off explosives. She gave her life protecting children running to the emergency exit.
She died 2 days short of her birthday, which is today.
I cover her story in the RP book. Last year, a movie about her life, Neerja, came out. I believe it’s now on US Netflix.
