The Last Flight: Neerja Bhanot's 17 Hours of Bravery That Saved 340 Lives

By: Davidson, Linda

The Last Flight: Neerja Bhanot's 17 Hours of Bravery That Saved 340 Lives

On September 5, 1986, four armed hijackers stormed Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi and turned a Boeing 747 into a sealed room of fear. At its center stood a 22-year-old senior flight purser-Neerja Bhanot-who alerted the cockpit, hid the passports the gunmen demanded, steadied a panicked cabin, opened an escape door under fire, and in her final act shielded children with her own body. More than 340 people survived.

The Last Flight is a scene-driven, evidence-led account of that night and its long tail-reconstructed from public records, survivor testimony, and aviation practice. With clarity and compassion, Linda Davidson shows how one person's moral courage under fire reshaped airline training and left a legacy that still protects lives.

Inside you'll find:

A minute-by-minute reconstruction of the Flight 73 hijacking

How Neerja's leadership embodied crew resource management (CRM)

Passenger and crew perspectives-fear, resilience, and small acts of grace

The investigations, trials, and aviation-security reforms that followed

The continuing work and impact of the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust

For readers of Unbroken, Sully, and I Am Malala-this is not a story of terror, but of courage that changed the fate of hundreds.

Content note: Includes non-graphic descriptions of violence and trauma.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FXN8TWNY
• ISBN13: 9798271402395
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"