A day after an Israeli fighter jet was shot down over northern Israel prompting both crew members to eject, doctors at the Rambam Medical Center announced that the pilot who sustained serious injuries in the incident was well on his way to a full recovery.
The other pilot, who sustained moderate injuries in the crash, has been released from the hospital altogether.
The pilots recounted the tense moments leading up to the crash, recalling their fateful decision to eject at the last minute, mere seconds before the Israeli Air Force F-16 Sufa jet went up in flames.
According to the pilots' testimony, when the anti-aircraft missile targeting their aircraft exploded, they immediately realized they had been hit. "It is a very uncomfortable feeling. Losing control," said one of the pilots. "Ejection is very much immediate. There is no long process – there is no time. Only seconds. There is an immediate realization that you have to hurry up and eject, both because of the physical injuries and because of the damage to the aircraft, which stopped functioning."
Quoted on the Hadashot news edition on Sunday, one of the pilots recalled that the entire incident, from the moment of the missile strike to the moment of ejection, lasted only a few seconds. He noted that "there was no yelling in the cockpit."
"We were very fortunate as well," he added. "The explosion of the missile near the jet and the force of the blast could have killed us."
The pilots coordinated between them and ejected from the jet. According to their testimony, the pilot who was seriously wounded in the incident was still conscious at that time. "You're suspended with a parachute at 14,000 feet and you have some long minutes before you reach the ground."
The pilots explained that they were in constant communication with a rescue team over the IAF emergency communications channel "so that a rescue helicopter would join us."
The IAF completed gathering evidence on the incident on Sunday and was expected to present its findings on the downing of the jet – an extremely rare incident for Israeli aircraft. Initial reports suggested that "the downing and subsequent crash were not inevitable, and could have been avoided had the aircraft systems been operated differently."
The IAF aircraft dispatched to Syria on Saturday, after an Iranian drone launched from Syria breached Israeli airspace, used an attack technique known as "standoff," which allows precise bombing of targets at a distance sufficient to allow attacking personnel to evade defensive fire from the target area. This meant the aircraft were flying at a relatively high altitude.
The jet that was hit had been flying at 14,000 feet when a Syrian air defense battery fired a salvo of some 25 anti-aircraft SA-5 and SA-17 missiles at the direction of the jets.
According to initial findings, the pilots aboard the targeted jet were focused on protecting their load, to ensure that it arrives intact at the target (the vehicle where the drone controls were located), and therefore neglected to take evasive action in time. Upon realizing the jet was under fire, and after sustaining shrapnel from the anti-aircraft missile warhead, the pilots decided to eject and parachute to safety.
Whether the jet's electronic shield was properly activated is still under investigation. Another possibility being explored is that the pilots were too complacent due to the fact that strikes in Syria have become somewhat routine in the recent past.
A day after the incident, the Rambam Medical Center issued a statement indicating an improvement in the condition of both wounded pilots.
"The medical team has taken the pilot off the respirator and he is fully conscious," Dr. Yaron Bar-Lavie, the head of the Rambam Critical Care Division, said of the crew member who sustained the more serious trauma.
President Reuven Rivlin visited the pilots at the hospital before one of them was released Sunday. "I was pleased to see the two pilots making a speedy recovery," Rivlin said, thanking the hospital staff. "The fact that I spoke to the pilot is encouraging. He is fully conscious – in pain, but speaking clearly."
"Once again," Rivlin added, "we saw our teams, having trained extensively, display an ingrained focus on their mission and refusing to accept failure. This is an extremely important value, in the face of our enemies.
"Anyone wishing us harm must know that we will not allow them to disrupt the lives of our citizens," he continued. "We will not stand idly when anyone tries to do this.
"We owe a debt of gratitude to the entire defense establishment, this time specifically to the aircrews that perform their duties without compromise," he said.
On the issue of Iran, Rivlin noted that "the prime minister was right to warn, and the entire world knows – the superpowers and the countries – that we cannot tolerate Iran's involvement here at our border and at our gates."
