Uri Bar-Lev (born July 19, 1931) is a retired Israeli airline pilot. He has been claimed to be the only pilot to have successfully thwarted an in-flight hijacking. [1] Bar-Lev was born on an Israeli moshav. He was a 16 year-old soldier during the war for Israeli independence when it was attacked by all of its Arab neighbors, and then became an Israeli Air Force pilot. His last military flight was in the 1956 Sinai War, after which he became a pilot for Israel’s national airline El Al. [2]
On September 6, 1970, Bar-Lev was the pilot of El Al Flight 219 from Tel Aviv to New York via Amsterdam. He was made aware that four suspicious people were trying to board the plane. Bar-Lev insisted that two of the suspects not be allowed to board, and the two others be questioned. [3] He also asked that the air-marshal be seated with him in the cockpit during the flight. Once the hijackers, Patrick Argüello and Leila Khaled, threatened the crew and passengers, Bar-Lev took control of the flight and threw the plane into a dive. [4] This lowered the plane’s altitude making any explosion or damage less dangerous and knocked the hijackers to the ground. [5] The air marshal killed Arguello and Khaled was arrested after passing out as a result of the dramatic shift in air pressure. She wrote in her memoir that she was forcefully subdued,[ citation needed ] but that was never the case.[ citation needed ]
Flight 219 was the fifth flight hijacked in that one week of September 1970.
Israeli air command told Bar-Lev to fly the plane to Tel Aviv, but he was concerned for the welfare of an injured flight attendant, and the two air marshals, and instead brought the plane to London. [6] Bar-Lev and the crew were detained for hours, questioned by the British police. [7] He was later sanctioned for this decision as well as the decision to have the air marshal fly in the cockpit with him. [8]
Bar-Lev and the crew were celebrated by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in December 1970. [9]
In 1974, Bar-Lev retired as a pilot. He lives in Israel with his wife, Yona. [2]
Bar-Lev was instrumental in cancelling a 2020 San Francisco State University event with Leila Khaled, one of the 1970 hijackers, arguing that it crossed a line between free speech and inciting terrorism. [10]
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the hijacker's demands. There have also been incidents where the hijackers have overpowered the flight crew, made unauthorized entry into the cockpit and flown them into buildings – most notably in the September 11 attacks – and in several cases, planes have been hijacked by the official pilot or co-pilot; e.g., Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702.
Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Nami was a Saudi Arabian terrorist who boarded United Airlines Flight 93 as part of the September 11 attacks. al-Nami, along with Ahmed al-Haznawi are suspected to have carried the presumed bomb that was boarded in Flight 93. Born in Saudi Arabia, al-Nami had served as a muezzin and was a college student. He left his family in 2000 to complete the Hajj, but later went to Afghanistan bound for an al-Qaeda training camp where he befriended other future hijackers and would soon be chosen to participate in the attacks.
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government building in the national capital of Washington, D.C. The overall mission was a partial success for al-Qaeda, as a passenger revolt forced the terrorists to crash the plane in a Pennsylvania field, preventing them from reaching their intended target, but killing everyone aboard the flight. The airliner involved, a Boeing 757-222 with 44 passengers and crew, was flying United Airlines' daily scheduled morning flight from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California, making it the only plane hijacked that day not to be a Los Angeles-bound flight.
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd., trading as El Al, is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve over 50 destinations, operating scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights within Israel, and to Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, from its main base in Ben Gurion Airport.
On July 23, 1999, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 747-481D with 503 passengers on Flight 61, including 14 children and 14 crew members on board, took off from Tokyo Haneda Airport in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan and was en route to New Chitose Airport in Chitose, Japan, near Sapporo when it was hijacked by Yūji Nishizawa.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi by three Ethiopians seeking asylum in Australia. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands, due to fuel exhaustion; 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board, including the three hijackers, died. This is the first recorded instance of a partially successful water landing utilizing a wide-body aircraft. Although Pan Am Flight 6 in 1956 successfully executed a water landing, the plane involved in that incident was a narrow-body Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.
EgyptAir Flight 648 was a regularly scheduled international flight between Athens Ellinikon International Airport (Greece) and Cairo International Airport (Egypt). On 23 November 1985, a Boeing 737-200 airliner, registered SU-AYH, servicing the flight was hijacked by the terrorist organization Abu Nidal. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops killed 56 of the 86 passengers, 2 of the 3 hijackers and 2 of the 6 crew, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history.
A sky marshal is a covert law enforcement or counter-terrorist agent on board a commercial aircraft to counter aircraft hijackings. Such an agent is also known as an air marshal, a flight marshal, or an in-flight security officer (IFSO). Sky marshals may be provided by airlines such as El Al, or by government agencies such as the Austrian Einsatzkommando Cobra, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, German Federal Police, National Security Guard in India, Metropolitan Police SO19 from London, Pakistan Airports Security Force, or US Federal Air Marshal Service.
Leila Khaled is a Palestinian refugee, former terrorist, and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London. Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa, Jordan, formerly Royal Air Force Station Zarqa, which then became PFLP's "Revolutionary Airport". By the end of the incident, one hijacker had been killed and one injury reported. This was the second instance of mass aircraft hijacking, after an escape from communist Czechoslovakia in 1950.
Patricio José Argüello Ryan, known as Patrick Argüello, was a Nicaraguan American, member of the Sandinistas who was shot and killed while attempting to hijack El Al Flight 219 in September 1970, as part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Dawson's Field hijackings. The Sandinistas had agreed to support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's hijacking in exchange for guerrilla warfare training.
American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing everyone aboard the flight and ensuring the deaths of well over a thousand people in the upper floors of the skyscraper in addition to causing the demise of more than 200 people below the trapped floors, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in human history as well as the deadliest plane crash of all time. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-223ER with 92 passengers and crew, was flying American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
El Al Flight 426 was an El Al passenger flight hijacked on July 23, 1968 by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), setting off a wave of hijackings by the PFLP. Scholars have characterized the hijacking as significant in the advent of modern international air terrorism.
CanJet Flight 918 was a flight that was on 19 April 2009 to have taken off from Sangster International Airport (MBJ), Montego Bay, Jamaica, bound for Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), Halifax, Canada, but was instead seized before takeoff for hours by an armed, lone hijacker. This was likely the third incidence of a hijacking on Jamaican soil, and the second time a Canadian airliner has been hijacked. The first likely hijacking from Jamaica occurred 21 March 1972 when a Jamaica Air Taxi charter Cessna owned by Rudy Mantel and piloted by Marsh Greene was hijacked from Montego Bay Sangster International Airport to Manzanillo Cuba by two U.S. citizens. The second hijacking was a thwarted attempt on 3 January 1974, aboard an Air Jamaica flight at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.
Events in the year 1970 in Israel.
Events in the year 1969 in Israel.
Events in the year 1968 in Israel.
El Al Flight 432 was a Boeing 720-058B that was attacked by a squad of four armed Palestinian militants, members of the Lebanese-based militant organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while it was preparing for takeoff at the Zurich International Airport in Kloten, Switzerland on February 18, 1969. The plane, which was on its way from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv via Zürich, was due to take off at Zurich International Airport. Several of the crew members were injured during the attack; one later died of his injuries. The plane was severely damaged. A greater disaster was averted when Mordechai Rahamim, an undercover Israeli security agent stationed on the plane, opened fire at the attackers and killed the terrorist leader. Rahamim and the three surviving attackers were arrested and tried by Swiss authorities. The attackers were found guilty and given prison sentences, while Rahamim was acquitted.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization, the largest being Fatah.
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