Neerja Bhanot
FLIGHT ATTENDANT (1963 - 1986)
In 1986, Neerja Bhanot died saving Pan Am
passengers from terrorists. Posthumously in
1987, she became the first female recipient of
the Ashoka Chakra award, India's highest
civilian decoration for bravery. Bhanot was a
senior flight purser on a plane hijacked
at Jinnah International Airport, by men from
the Abu Nidal organization. During a 17hour
ordeal, she helped the cockpit crew
escape to ground the plane. Bhanot hid
passports so the hijackers could not
determine passenger nationalities. She also
opened the emergency door
assisting passengers to escape. As the
hijackers opened fire on passengers and
crew, Bhanot lost her life shielding children. In
2006 she was awarded the Special Courage
Award by the US Department of Justice.
Marie Colvin
FOREIGN WAR CORRESPONDENT
(1956 - 2012)
Marie Colvin was an acclaimed
war correspondent, tragically killed in Syria in
2012, while covering the conflict for The
Sunday Times. Over her 30-year career, she
was known for her moving accounts of innocent
civilians in war zones. She was a two-time
recipient of the British Foreign Correspondent
Reporter of the Year Award, received the
Foreign Press Association's Journalist of the
Year award, and the International Women's
Media Foundation award for Courage in
Journalism for her coverage of Kosovo and
Chechnya. In 1999 she refused to evacuate a
United Nations compound under attack in East
Timor, staying as other journalists fled. This
brought attention to the plight of 1,500 women
and children, who as a result were eventually
evacuated to safety.
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