1986 Pan Am hijacking: Ministry of External Affairs may raise issue of compensation with United States

NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old hijacking case that involved a Pan Am airline may cast shadow over Barack Obama’s January visit. A directive from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the Ministry of External Affairs has suggested that it should raise with the United States the issue of not granting compensation to Indian-origin victims who were killed before the hijack ended.

Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked on September 5, 1986, while on the ground at Karachi by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal organisation. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, and was preparing to depart the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi for Frankfurt, before its ultimate destination of New York. 20 passengers were killed after commandos stormed the plane and the hijackers started shooting. Twelve of the killed were Indians.

While the US authorities compensated American nationals on the ill-fated flight, it refused to pay any compensation for passengers of other nationalities.

There were around 200 Indian passengers on that flight. The US had repeatedly asked India to negotiate with Libya for compensation, official sources told ET. But, interestingly, the Libyan government provided $1.5 billion to the US in 2008 as compensation for various terrorist acts against the country, including the Pan Am hijack.

The Civil Aviation Minsitry is of the opinion that this was another reason why America should pay compensation for the next of kin of Indians killed. In a recent communication, aviation ministry asked MEA to “take up the matter with the US authorities in a suitable manner”.

The communication notes, “To expect the Government of India to negotiate for Indian passengers with the Government of Libya in such cases is unreasonable and unjustified as the flight involved was a US carrier.” The Aviation Ministry further stated, “The stand taken by the US is totally unjustified and smacks of rank discrimination.