A French pilot who’s remembered as a hero for his actions in the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane to Uganda’s Entebbe airport died Tuesday at the age of 95.

Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said in a statement that Michel Bacos died in the southern French city.

Bacos was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest decoration, for refusing to leave the plane’s passengers after the plane was hijacked and grounded.

“By refusing with bravery to quit in the face of anti-Semitism and barbary, he honored France,” Estrosi said.

The Tel Aviv-Paris flight was hijacked on June 27, 1976 by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a German radical group. The hijackers released 148 non-Israeli passengers after the plane landed in Uganda. Bacos remained with the hostages despite offers of release.

Death of a hero: Michel Bacos, the captain of Air France flight 139 hijacked to Entebbe in 1976. He refused to leave the Jewish passengers behind and stayed with them until they were rescued by the IDF. He passed away in France at the age of 95. We salute you, Captain pic.twitter.com/5LHYVRMIkH

— Dani Dayan (@AmbDaniDayan) March 27, 2019

The seven pro-Palestinian hijackers held some 110 Jewish and Israeli hostages in the airport terminal for nearly a week before Israeli commandos led by Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of Israel’s current prime minister, freed them.

The commandos flew over 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from Israel to Uganda to attempt the daring operation. Yonatan Netanyahu was the sole Israeli military casualty in the raid on Entebbe. Three Israeli hostages were killed along with all seven of the hijackers.

Michel Bacos, the @airfrance pilot whose plane was hijacked to Entebbe in 1976, has died. He refused to leave his Jewish passengers when offered and stayed until the successful @idf operation. A quiet hero and a true friend of the Jewish people. May his memory be a blessing pic.twitter.com/493mXy3mwp

— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) March 27, 2019

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Bacos as the “hero captain” of the hijacked Air France flight on Twitter: “I bow my head in his memory and salute Michel’s heroism.”

מישל באקוס, הקברניט הגיבור של מטוס אייר פראנס שנחטף באנטבה, הלך לעולמו. הוא סירב לעזוב את נוסעיו היהודים והישראלים על אף שהחוטפים הציעו לו זאת. הוא נשאר איתם דרך כל תלאותיהם, עד שחיילי צה״ל בפיקודו של אחי יוני ז״ל שיחררו אותם במבצע נועז. אני מרכין ראש לזכרו ומצדיע לגבורתו של מישל

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 27, 2019

Benny Davidson, one of the former Israeli hostages, remembered Bacos as “a dear man and a great hero.”

Davidson, who was 13 at the time of the hijacking, wrote on Facebook that Bacos “taught us a lesson in leadership, responsibility and exemplarity.”

"We were not going to leave the Jewish passengers in Entebbe."

Captain Michel Bacos, pilot of the Air France flight 139 that was hijacked by PFLP and diverted to Uganda, has died yesterday at age 95.

We salute a true hero.#OperationThunderbolt pic.twitter.com/JW1plrgAyE

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) March 27, 2019

(AP)