On 5 Septempber 1986, Dr. Kishore Murthy was flying to New York to present a paper on rheumatic heart disease and hypertension when his plane was hijacked. The plane was a Pan Am Flight 73, and Dr. Murthy was one of the few people to actually watch Neerja Bhanot be killed, a woman whose courage saved the lives of countless others like Dr. Murthy on the ill-fated flight. His first person account was recently published by The Times of India.

Read on.

Today, Dr. Murthy is 60-years-old and is as a hospital management expert with St John’s Hospital. He and his wife Dr Veena Bharathi, have worked closely with Neerja’s family to document her life, and have helped with the making of the upcoming biopic ‘Neerja’.