It's been over 25 years since terrorists from the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked a U.S. plane, Pan Am Flight 73, in Karachi, Pakistan, which claimed the lives of 21 passengers and crew members. The Justice Department said Libya provided financial and logistical support to the hijackers and, with the recent fall of the Gadhafi regime, a number of survivors are renewing their calls to congress for compensation from the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.
The 2008 settlement agreement was established to address outstanding legal claims of U.S. terrorism victims pending against Libya at that time. The majority of the money was earmarked for victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and U.S victims of terrorism, such as the bombing of a Berlin disco in 1986 and the 1989 bombing of UTA flight 772.
One of the Pan Am Flight 73 survivors is Madhvi Bahuguna, a Stamford, Connecticut-based flight attendant for Delta Airlines. In 1986, she was a 21-year-old employee of Pan Am. She fractured her leg after jumping off the wing of the airplane. Although she managed to escape from the hijackers, and continues to work in the industry, she says she hasn't shaken the effects of that episode.
"Lots of loud clapping, it makes me nervous," she said, saying the sound reminds her of gunfire. "It makes me want to run."
Bahuguna, who is from India, gained U.S. citizenship in 1991, and said she hasn't been compensated because she was an Indian national at the time of the hijacking. She and other survivors argue that, as with the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, all those affected by the hijacking should receive compensation: $10 million if a family member was killed, $3 million if they were injured.
"I took care of Americans, and I was not even an American. I still went above and beyond, like a soldier going to fight for another country," she said, adding that the double-standard "becomes an extreme insult."
Joining her in the effort to secure compensation is Gopal Dadhirao, a 54-year-old Rockland County resident who was traveling with his wife, Krishnakumari Gadde. Both were students at the University of Missouri and were returning from vacation in India. The hijacking culminated in a series of grenade explosions, said Dadhirao, one of which killed his pregnant wife.
"Once the gun shots and all died down, I came to, and I saw that there was blood streaming down, and I could see my wife's face from one side, so I tried to pull her towards me to wake her up to say 'Let's go,' and then I saw half of her face was blown away."
Along with other victims, Dadhirao, who was injured in the attack, has been meeting with aides to Senator Charles Schumer. A spokesman for the senator confirmed the meetings and forwarded a letter, signed by senators Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and six others, asking the State Department to tap into frozen Libyan funds as a means of addressing compensation claims.
"They have $38 billion in frozen funds in the United States," Dadhirao said. "And this is a way we could compensate all the victims of terrorism by Libya."