Neerja Bhanot, AC (Hindi: नीरजा भनोत; 7 September 1963 – 5 September 1986),[1] was a purser for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was shot and killed while saving passengers from terrorists on board a hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986. Posthumously, she became the youngest recipient of India's highest peacetime military award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra.[2]