The concept of heroism

José Fernando

“Everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.” (Luke 12:8-12)

The highly original city of Chandigarh, also known as “The City of Beauty”, stands out sharply from other Indian metropolises. Located in the northwest of the country, it was founded in 1947, following India’s liberation from British rule. With nearly two million inhabitants, the city is distinguished by its refined urban design and remarkable buildings. It was planned by renowned architects such as Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, and the American Albert Mayer. One might call it “the Brasília of the East”, with its carefully designed sectors, broad avenues, and exemplary greenery, particularly notable for the thoughtful selection of plant species, precise placement, and meticulous maintenance.

It was in this charming city that, in September 1963, Neerja Bhanot (1) was born, a beautiful girl who, in a country that was already immensely populous at the time, would easily go unnoticed and whose name would never be raised in admiring reflections around the world. With her enchanting beauty, at the age of 18 she began a modeling career, appearing in retail store inserts throughout India, with a promising career ahead of her. 

Despite her early fame, she envisioned herself soaring through the skies, marveling at breathtaking landscapes, engaging with the rich diversity of humankind, and deepening her understanding of new cultures. She ultimately made a noble and long-cherished decision: to devote herself entirely to becoming a qualified flight attendant.

She left behind the fashion runways without realizing that, like a feminine embodiment of the mythological Aeolus, she would one day become a guardian of the winds, restraining storms and confronting the violent, frenzied tempests of unbalanced human souls. Born into a traditional Indian family, she was compelled, against her will, to accept a marriage arranged by her parents. They had been deceived by a local newspaper advertisement promoting a “wonderful” man living in the United Arab Emirates who claimed to be seeking a young woman of good lineage. The marriage lasted only two months and, in an uncommon turn for her time, she managed to escape an abusive husband who had married her solely for the substantial dowry provided by her father, as dictated by Indian tradition.

Freed from that grievous commitment, Neerja devoted herself entirely to her studies. In 1985, at the age of twenty-two, after being selected by Pan Am, she flew to Miami to undergo training for a career as a flight attendant. Chosen from nearly ten thousand candidates, she assumed the role of flight attendant on the Frankfurt, New Delhi route and, in a short time, rose to the position of chief purser.

As life does not always unfold like a fairy tale, fate, or rather, the determinism of divine laws, charted for her a path she could never have imagined. In the early hours of that Friday, September 5, 1986, still deeply enthusiastic about her dream job, she confided to her colleagues her joy at turning twenty-three just two days later. Despite her usual brightness, someone noticed something fleeting in her expression, as if a gray cloud had momentarily crossed the clear blue sky of her beautiful countenance.

At around 6:00 a.m. on that fateful Friday, the aircraft, a Boeing 747 that had departed from Mumbai bound for New York, carrying 361 passengers and 19 crew members, made a stopover in Karachi, Pakistan. Neerja Bhanot, wearing her trademark flight-attendant smile, was welcoming new passengers when her intuition sounded an immediate alarm: who were those four agitated men, with furtive glances, rushing up the boarding stairs?

Quickly, she moved slightly away from the area and, before takeoff, heard a piercing shout: “Hijacking, hands up!” The terrorists belonged to the Abu Nidal Organization, a group advocating the Palestinian cause and supported by Libya, the same group that, a year earlier, had hijacked EgyptAir Flight 648, resulting in the deaths of sixty people.

The extremists intended to force the aircraft to fly to Cyprus and then on to Israel, where imprisoned members of their faction were to be released. Their primary demand was the liberation of their allies. With remarkable speed and presence of mind, Neerja opened the cockpit service door and warned the pilots of the imminent danger. In record time, they managed to lock the cockpit and escape through the emergency hatch, leaving the aircraft grounded and incapable of flight. From that moment on, long hours of fear and anguish began. 

Elite units of the Pakistani military police and airport security surrounded the Boeing, and prolonged negotiations ensued. The extremist group intended to identify and execute all forty-three American passengers aboard the flight. As broadcast live by the Indian television network RDTV, it was precisely in this scenario that Neerja Bhanot became a heroine. As the danger steadily escalated, she showed extraordinary courage and kept everyone calm.

Complying with the hijackers’ orders, she collected passengers’ passports, secretly hiding the documents of the American passengers beneath a seat and inside the trash chute. At one point, Rajesh Kumar, a 29-year-old man, under pressure and naively, identified himself as an Indian holding American citizenship. He was dragged to the aircraft door and shot in the head. His body was thrown onto the airport tarmac as a grim display of the group’s brutality.

In this moment of absolute terror, when the mind clouds, the heart races, and legs tremble, Neerja, in a kind of cosmic composure, urged the crew to serve sandwiches and soft drinks to everyone. This unthinkable act of self-control helped delay what would otherwise have been a foreseeable massacre. The hijacking had already lasted seventeen hours, and tension inside the aircraft intensified when the plane’s power supply was cut. In the darkness, the terrorists fired their weapons to terrify the passengers. Amid the chaos, a grenade exploded, tearing a hole in the aircraft’s fuselage.

In the midst of the pandemonium, Bhanot opened an emergency exit and helped passengers escape. Even after enabling the evacuation of hundreds of passengers and crew members, Neerja did not abandon her position. She placed herself in front of the last remaining passengers: three children. She was shot by the terrorists and, despite being rushed to the hospital, died two days before her twenty-third birthday. The extremists attempted to flee but were captured and later convicted in Pakistan.

Heroic acts such as this are rare and often move us deeply, prompting reflection on the grandeur of the human spirit. They also reveal how extremes of malevolence and altruism sharpen our curiosity, leading us to seek an understanding of the driving forces behind human reactions under extreme stress.

The earliest concept of the “hero” dates back to Ancient Greece, in the account of the historian Herodotus. It is based on the legendary Pheidippides, a hemerodrome, a term roughly equivalent to what we would now call a courier. According to legend, in 490 BCE, Pheidippides ran approximately forty kilometers from Athens to the city of Marathon to take part in the battle of the same name against the Persians. After the Athenians prevailed and the Persians retreated toward their ships, fear arose that they might attack the unprotected city of Athens. Pheidippides is said to have run back, without stopping, to announce the victory. Upon delivering the message, he collapsed and died from sheer exhaustion.

As a result of his immense effort, Athens gained time to prepare, fortify the city, and emerge unscathed from the Persian threat, saving thousands of lives. As a lasting legacy of this historic feat, the marathon race was created, the forty-kilometer competition held at the Olympic Games.

In-depth psychological studies identify the intrinsic qualities of heroes, explaining why they stand apart from the masses. Repeated analyses conclude that these champions of altruism possess profound empathy for others and demonstrate exceptional courage in the face of danger. They are characterized by an irreproachable sense of responsibility, crowned by an unwavering moral obligation. Moreover, they cultivate personal values of remarkable integrity, which overflow under social pressures and challenges.

It is therefore disheartening when the label “hero” is casually applied to individuals who embody none of these qualities so clearly defined by Psychology. The term has become commonplace on social media, often used to describe celebrities in sports or the arts. Headlines proclaim that someone was the “hero” of a championship or that another, after a “herculean and heroic effort,” earned a place on the podium. There is nothing wrong with recognizing dedication and sacrifice, but true heroism transcends physical limits, it reaches the moral sphere, sublimates feeling, and elevates it to the realm of higher spirituality.

Clearly, those noble souls who, in moments of excruciating calamity, give their lives to save others are eternally worthy of praise, admiration, and even reverence. The merit of their deeds is unquestionable. Yet there exists another class of heroes whose acts of moral greatness do not echo on social networks, do not become topics of conversation, and receive none of the world’s applause, passing unnoticed from cradle to grave.

Emmanuel did not forget these anonymous heroes (2). The eminent spiritual mentor of Francisco Cândido Xavier, dictating a simple yet profound message, highlights and distinguishes the exalted, though seemingly invisible, qualities of these courageous human beings, the hidden heroes. He writes:

Yes, we should revere the name of those who forgot themselves in favor of the neighbor. However, there is an obscure heroism, as authentic and beautiful as that which marks the protagonists of great exploits in face of death. We talk about the hidden heroism of those who know how to live, day by day, within the narrow circle of obligations, in spite of the obstacles and trials that torture them.

The fearlessness of our heroine, Neerja Bhanot, was widely recognized through posthumous honors. She became the youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra Award, India’s highest decoration for bravery. Pakistan honored her with the Tamgha-e-Insaniyat, a national award recognizing acts of human kindness.

In an interview with the newspaper One India, one of the children Neerja helped, only seven years old at the time, later became a captain for a major airline. He confirmed that the flight attendant was his greatest inspiration and that he owes his life to her actions.

AVENTURAS NA HISTÓRIA. Neerja Bhanot: the flight attendant who sacrificed her life to save passengers. Available at:https://aventurasnahistoria.com.br/noticias/personagem/neerja-bhanot.
XAVIER, Francisco Cândido. Heart and Soul. Translated English edition. United States Spiritist Council, 2017. ISBN 9780998648149.