On May 8, 1972, Arab terrorists hijacked Belgian airline Sabena Flight 571 en route from Vienna to Tel Aviv. The four terrorists – two men and two women – were part of the Black September terror organization, the same group that, just four months later, would perpetrate the notorious Munich Olympics massacre.

Motivation for the hijacking stemmed from lingering anger over Israel’s success during the Six-Day War in 1967. Terror organizations were looking to indiscriminately kill Israelis around the world.

Just 20 minutes after takeoff, the terrorists broke into the cockpit and took control of the plane. They ordered Reginald Levy, the flight’s captain, to continue as planned to Lod Airport outside Tel Aviv. After reaching their destination, the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane and kill everyone on board unless 315 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails were released.

While all this was happening, Captain Levy managed to send silent distress signals on to Israel. Upon being made aware of the situation, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan began immediate negotiations with the terrorists, while simultaneously planning a covert rescue operation – Operation Isotope.

Undercover commandos

The goal of the operation was to get the passengers safely off the plane before the terrorists could kill them. During the night, an undercover IDF squad secretly slashed the plane’s tires and disconnected its hydraulic equipment.

Next, Defense Minister Dayan used a bogus group of prisoners to trick the terrorists into believing the negotiated prisoner exchange was taking place. The ‘prisoners’ boarded a separate plane in the distance, supposedly headed for Cairo.

The terrorists attempted to start the plane’s engines, which had, unbeknownst to them, been disabled. Dayan told them that he was sending over a group of technicians to fix the plane.

A team of 16 elite commandos from the IDF’s Sayeret Matkal counter-terrorism unit, disguised as flight technicians, hit the tarmac. They were dressed in white coverall uniforms and arrived in luggage vehicles. The squad was commanded by Ehud Barak, who, along with team-member Benjamin Netanyahu, would go on to become a prime minister of Israel.

Major-General (res.) Danny Yatom, a former member of Sayeret Matkal, played a key role in Operation Isotope. At the time, he was the squad’s deputy commander and recalls well the feeling on the ground.

“It was a tense atmosphere due to the amount of question marks, difficulties and the level of uncertainty on matters such as what the inside of the plane would look like, or if the terrorists would detonate explosive belts…but, as on many previous missions, this did not bother us,” Yatom said. “What we focused on was doing it in the best way possible.”

Outside the plane, Barak blew a whistle signaling the operation to begin. Within 90 seconds, the commandos had killed the male terrorists, arrested the female terrorists and neutralized all bomb threats to the passengers.

All but three civilians on board escaped unharmed. One passenger later died from injuries she sustained during the firefight while the commandos took over the plane.

The surviving terrorists were sentenced to life in Israeli prison, but were released in a prisoner exchange deal following the 1982 Lebanon War.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)