Ronen Bergman, Or Fialkov
Ynet News, Sept. 15, 2023
“In case of a system failure or a problem with the plane, you cannot return to base. You have one option: to fly to an open area at a remote location. Then, the pilot must make sure the plane is abandoned or the system is destroyed so that it doesn’t endanger the people at the base. In such a case, the pilot might also sacrifice his life.”
Chapter 1: Chatting in the cockpit
On that August morning in 1973, close to dawn, “Saul” (a pseudonym) stood on the ladder leading to the cockpit of a Mirage jet. He helped the pilot strap into the ejection seat, then connected him to the internal communication system and handed him his helmet.
Saul was the commander of one of the ground crews in Wing 4, stationed at the Hatzor Air Force Base. The pilot he was preparing for takeoff that morning was Lt. Col. Avi Lanir, the legendary commander of Squadron 101.
This was no routine flight: it was a training mission involving a special weapons system, which according to foreign media reports, Israel had been developing for years and only a few people knew about.
“Even when two people share the same secret,” Saul recalls that moment for the first time, “they tend not to talk to each other more than necessary. Often a secret has many details, and nobody knows exactly what the other person knows. So, it’s better to keep quiet.”
Saul sighs, clearly finding it difficult to speak about the legendary pilot. “But that morning,” he continues, “Avi broke with his usual practice. We climbed into the cockpit. And while I was preparing him for the flight, he asked me if I knew what this was all about, and what the scenarios were for using the system.”
Of course, Saul knew, and along with him, only a handful of people in the Air Force were in the know. They were there alone, surrounding the plane, inside the underground hangar (the fortified area where planes are housed on Air Force bases), accompanied only by a few individuals who were part of the highly confidential security group specifically for this system.
