Navigator Ron Arad was captured on October 16, 1986, exactly 36 years from today.
As part of his service in Squadron 69 (Hammer Squadron), Arad flew as a pilot in a Phantom plane to attack terrorist targets in Sidon, Lebanon.
A technical malfunction in one of the bombs caused the bomb to explode near the plane, Ron Arad and the pilot Yishai Aviram abandoned the plane using the ejection seat.
Each of them was swept away by the wind to another place, the pilot was rescued by an Air Force helicopter when he hung onto the helicopter's slide, but the crews were unable to locate Arad in the field, Arad, after a short hiding, was captured by the Amal terrorist organization.
Pilot Yishai Aviram on the helicopter slide during his rescue, photo: no
Arad's captors delivered three letters from him to the Israeli authorities, but in May 1988 his traces disappeared when it was estimated in Israel that he had been transferred to Iran.
Since then, no sign of life has been received from him.
Various estimates exist regarding his fate and some claim that he was murdered by his captors several months after his transfer to Iran after his unsuccessful escape attempt.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the chief rabbi of the IDF agreed to recognize Bard as a person whose burial place was unknown, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon strongly opposed this.
Obeid on the right and Dirani at the hearing in the Israeli court, photo: None
Israel made many efforts to free him, including the kidnapping of "Amal" senior Mustafa Dirani, who was responsible for his detention, and Hizbullah senior al-Karim Obeid, but these efforts bore no fruit.
About a year ago, then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed that the Mossad had recently launched an operation to locate the missing navigator, according to what is known, these efforts also did not lead to the disclosure of his whereabouts and did not shed light on what happened to him.
Last month, the women and men of the Mossad went on an operation whose purpose was to find new information about the fate and whereabouts of Ron Arad.
It was a complex and wide-ranging operation, that's all that can be said at the moment.
We made another effort on the way to understanding what happened to Ron.
>> pic.twitter.com/MKilupoOpt
— Naftali Bennett (@naftalibennett) October 4, 2021
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
