Wrapped in Israeli flags, the coffins of six Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Romania on Monday were carried off a Boeing airplane Friday morning.

Chief Military Rabb Brigadier General Rafi Peretz – a helicopter pilot himself – participated in the ceremony that took place on the landing strip at the Tel Nof military base. After saying Kaddish, the military cantor sang the prayer for the dead.

In Haifa, thousands attended the funeral of Lt. Nir Lakrif, who left behind him a four-month pregnant wife. Maggie eulogized her husband of less than a year: “We say goodbye your way, in the sky, through your steel monster that you loved so much. Look after us from your big white cloud.”

Meanwhile, the inquiry into the circumstances of the crash continued. The Boeing airplane carrying back the victims’ coffins also carried additional fragments from the Sea Stallion chopper that crashed. Most fragments have already been transferred to Israel.

The helicopter’s rotor, which landed further away from the helicopter’s main body, was only recovered in Romania on Friday, after being wedged between rocks at the mountainside.

(Source: Ynet)