Pan Am Flight 73 was a Pan American World Airways flight from Mumbai, India, to New York City, United States, with scheduled stops in Karachi, Pakistan, and Frankfurt, West Germany.
On September 5, 1986, the Boeing 747 serving the flight was hijacked while on the ground at Karachi by four armed Palestinian militants of the Abu Nidal Organization. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Bombay. A grand jury later concluded that the hijackers were planning to use the hijacked airliner to pick up Palestinian prisoners in both Cyprus and Israel.
More than twenty passengers were killed during the hijacking, including nationals from India, the United Kingdom, Italy, Pakistan, and Mexico. All hijackers were arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan. However, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
HistoryLayer draws the world as it was in any year from 123,000 BCE to
2026. Move the slider and the borders redraw for that year; the map
carries 23,890 events, 12,790 people, 837 wars and 13,183 cities, each
one readable in place. Signing in is optional and lets you keep what
you find.