The world was shaken by the hijacking
Although the Wright brothers are considered to be the inventors of the airplane, the idea of ​​such a device was first started by the famous Leonardo da Vinci. History has shown that many people try to build aircraft. One such is Lilienthan. The study came to a halt with Lillianthan’s death in 1896. But by then the Wright brothers had begun experimenting with the design of Lillianthan’s flying vehicle. Their new endeavor began with an incomplete and forgotten title. At the end of the year, on December 17, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their aircraft. Almost 45 years after the creation of the aircraft, something like a hijacking took place in space – which shook the world. From 1928 to 2018, there were more than 140 hijackings. Today we will learn the story of some hijackings that shook the world.
Today’s topic of discussion……
1. Neerja Bhanot has saved 360 lives
2. The plane crashed in the Macau Sea
3. Indian Flight 81
4. DB Cooper hijack
5. The hijacked plane was in Dhaka
6. Egypt Flight 68
7. The first British Aircraft
★1.Neerja Bhanot has saved 360 lives
5 September, 1986
On September 5, 1986, the Pan Am Seventy Three en route from Mumbai to New York via Karachi was hijacked by terrorists. Their goal was to fly the plane to Cyprus, where it would free some of its own group of terrorists by taking passengers hostage. Four militants disguised as security personnel boarded a plane from Karachi. According to their own plan, the terrorists waited for about 17 hours for the plane to take off. Then the shooting started. At that time, while trying to save the three children, Neerja Bhanot shot himself. However, he saved the lives of 360 passengers before he died. Two days after his death was his 23rd birthday. A total of 20 people including Neerja Bhanot were killed out of 368 passengers in the incident. Neerja Bhanot was the bodyguard for the rest of the passengers, who opened the emergency exit.
As a result, the terrorists started firing indiscriminately and in the end the passengers attacked the four militants. Earlier, the militants grabbed Neerja Bhanot by the hair and shot her in the head. Throughout this terrible time, Neerja Bhanot remained calm and active. He was the first to warn the pilots and executives about the hijacking and to get everyone out of the cockpit as per his instructions so that the plane could not take off.
As a reward for bravery, the Indian government awarded Neerja Bhanot with the Ashoka Chakra Award, for which the US government announced the Flight Safety Foundation’s ‘Heroism Award’. The award was also announced by the governments of Pakistan and Colombia. In 2004, the Indian government issued a stamp in the name of this brave flight attendant. One of the eyewitnesses on the cursed plane, Dr. Kishore Murthy.
He said Neerja Bhanot did not flee the plane after hijacking the plane with 361 passengers and 19 crew at Karachi airport and saving his life as four armed fighter pilots. He gave importance to the safety of the passengers. He did not differentiate between Indian and US citizens at the time of the incident.
Very cleverly helped all the passengers to escape from the plane. But while trying to save the two children, Neerja Bhanot fell in the eyes of the militants. Dr. Murthy witnessed the horrific scene of Neerja’s death from row number six. The militants killed Neerja Bhanot from a point blank distance in front of his eyes.
Neerja Bhanot was born in 1963 in Chandigarh, India. From there he studied up to secondary school and moved to Mumbai with his family. He graduated from St. Xavier’s in Mumbai. In 1985, at the age of 22, Neerja Bhanot moved to the Middle East, marrying her parents’ favorite. But after the marriage, Neerja Bhanot left her husband and returned to the country due to constant pressure for dowry. After seeing an advertisement in a newspaper, she applied for a job as a flight attendant at Pan Am and started working.
★2.The plane crashed in the Macau Sea
July 16, 1948
The history of hijackings cannot be called too ancient. However, the history of hijacking cannot be called new if we consider airplanes as an adjunct of modern civilization. The hijacking of the first commercial aircraft in history took place almost 45 years after the invention of the aircraft. There was talk of hijacking in 1928, but the hijacking was recognized in 1948. The date was July 16, 1948. Although the hijackers failed to take control of the plane, the hijacking resulted in the plane crashing into the Macau Sea. At that time the incident shook the world. Cathay Pacific Airways’ Catacina flight from Macau to Hong Kong was hijacked just minutes after takeoff.
A total of four gunmen, led by a man named Wong Woo-man, were abducted and held hostage for ransom. And to that end, one of the robbers instructed the pilot to take full control of the aircraft. But the pilot did not listen to him. The reverse hijackers were intercepted by the pilot. The co-pilot followed in the footsteps of the chief pilot and became a defendant. The hijackers intercepted and shot the pilot. The plane then went out of control and crashed into the Macau Sea. The plane was carrying a total of 26 passengers. Only one of them survived. And he is the leader of that band of robbers, Wong Wu Mann. The incident of hijacking became clear from his confession later. At first the authorities and the world thought it was just an accident. But authorities are suspicious when they find bullet-riddled parts from the wreckage of the aircraft. The only surviving passenger was Wong, who was being treated at a Hong Kong hospital. On the bed next to him, the police put one of them as a patient. The incident of the hijacking of the world’s first plane was revealed in a conversation with the patient next to Wong.
★3.Indian Flight 81
December 24, 1999
On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines Flight 814 was en route from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to India’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Shortly after arriving in Indian airspace, he was snatched. The Pakistan-based terrorist group Harkatul Mujahideen was involved in the hijacking. The main culprit of the robbery was an armed man. He threatened to blow up the plane and instructed the pilot to change direction and fly east. Accordingly, the hijackers finally reached Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai and forced the plane to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In Dubai, they released 176 of the 27 passengers. But they brutally killed one and injured several others. The seven-day kidnapping drama came to an end when the Indian government released Mushtaq Ahmed Jargar, Ahmed Omar Syed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar as demanded by the kidnappers. The hijacking is considered to be the most talked about and suffocating aircraft hijacking in the Indian subcontinent.
★4.D.B. Cooper Hijack
November 24, 1971
On November 24, 1971, another of the most talked about hijackings in history took place. This time the hijacker is a mystery man. Who is called DB Cooper in history. He hijacked a Boeing 727 and sent it around the world.
The suspect involved in the hijacking bought a plane ticket under the false name Dan Cooper. After the hijacking, he took a 200,000 ransom and fled by parachute. Stay away from that money, the man could not be identified. All 36 passengers and six crew members on board were alive. Then, in February 1980, a young boy discovered a small hidden treasure trove on the banks of the Columbia River. The incident sparked renewed interest, but in the end it remained a mystery.
★5.The hijacked plane was in Dhaka
September 28, 1977
Hijackings also happen in our country. Maybe many of the new generation do not know the incident. The time was September 28, 1977. Flight 472, a Japanese airliner with 156 passengers on board, was en route from Paris, France to Henada Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The flight was to Mumbai, India. But soon after taking off from Mumbai, the scene changed. The plane was hijacked. The plane was hijacked by the Japanese leftist group United Red Am. A total of five hijacked planes belonging to a leftist armed group led by Osamo Marwaqar were hijacked and brought to Dhaka Airport. After landing in Dhaka, the hijackers demanded 6 million for the release of the passengers and the release of nine members of their jailed organization.
On October 1, Japanese Prime Minister Takio Fukuda announced that the government had agreed to accept the hijackers’ demands. Then 9 members of the kidnapping organization were released. The next day, on 2 October, a chartered plane of Japan Airlines brought Dhaka and six Red Army prisoners as ransom. The exchange took place between them on the same day. On that day, the hijackers released 198 passengers and crew. The next day, October 3, the hijackers flew to Damascus, Syria. There they released 11 more hostages. The plane eventually flew to Algeria. There the plane was seized by the authorities and the rest were also released.
★6.Egypt Flight 68
November 23, 1985
It is thought to be one of the deadliest hijackings in history. It was one of the worst attacks by the Abu Nidal organization. The attack was called a horrific hijacking because it caused many deaths. The plane was attacked by terrorists just 10 minutes after takeoff on November 23, 1985. The Palestinian terrorist group, which identified itself as the Egyptian Revolution, was armed with heavy weapons. The whole team took control of the plane.
The group’s leader, Omar Razzak, began snatching passengers’ passports. Began to snatch. A terrorist was killed when an Egyptian security officer opened fire. This caused chaos in the plane and the hijackers became brutal. As a result, more than 12 lives were lost. The main destination of the plane was Libya.But due to lack of fuel they were forced to land in Malta.
★7.The first British aircraft
September 9, 1970
The terrorists began regular hijackings as part of Dawson’s field hijacking. As part of this, in 1970, they attempted to hijack four aircraft simultaneously. And one of the planes was from England. This was the first British plane to be hijacked. On September 9, 1970, BOAC’s Super DC-10 aircraft with 114 passengers was hijacked near the Lebanese capital, Beirut, by guerrillas from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Armed guerrillas forced the pilot to land at an airport in northwestern Amman, Jordan. Earlier, they hijacked a Swiss DC-8 and a TW Boeing-707 with 184 passengers on board.
They hijacked the plane to demand the release of Laila Khaled, a guerrilla leader held in London, and other Arab prisoners held in Switzerland and Germany. Just as their attempts at snatching were successful, so were their motives. Appropriate authorities were eventually forced to accept the guerrillas ‘demands in the interests of the hostages’ lives. As a result, the guerrillas flew three planes, but in exchange for Laila Khaled and others, they left all the passengers unharmed.