The Israeli Air Force can already determine with great certainty what happened to the helicopter that crashed off the coast of Haifa Monday night: a major and sudden malfunction in the left engine led to an emergency landing and the fatal outcome of the event.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
It is not always possible to draw such conclusions so quickly and decisively. An investigation often requires time for evidence and testimony to be collected. In this instance, the air force succeeded in connecting the dots very quickly. Obviously, the fact that the naval captain accompanying the mission survived and testified about what happened in the fatal seconds when a routine flight turned into a nightmare also played a role.
It seems that from the moment they experienced the technical malfunction, the crew members conducted themselves in an optimal manner. Despite the malfunction, which was also accompanied by an electric shortage, they succeeded in landing the helicopter on water and making it float. A Eurocopter AS565 Panther, known in the IDF as "Atalef," or bat, is built to do just that, and crews are trained for such operations, which naturally are more complicated in the dark of night and under the extreme conditions of the kind of complex, multi-system failure they were forced to contend with that night.
The investigation will focus on why the pilots were unable to make it out of the helicopter alive. They appear to have sustained the brunt of the force of impact when the helicopter landed in the water. The fact that the naval officer sustained only moderate injuries could indicate something else was responsible for their deaths. In the Israel Defense Forces, it is customary to return air teams to routine operations as soon as possible after a crash so that they do not develop trauma, although it has yet to be determined whether this will be done in this case. At any rate, the naval officer, who broke one of his ribs, will require extensive rehabilitation before he is fit to return for duty.
Eurocopter AS565 Panthers have a very good safety record. The IDF has been using the aircraft for 25 years. Throughout that time, one tragic accident took place in September 1996, when a helicopter crashed on the shores of Nahariya during a training flight at night. Two crew members, Lt. Col. Benzion Bachar and Capt. Shachak Sela, as well as naval officer Capt. Eran Garbia were killed in the crash. Garbia's remains have not been found to this day. Another helicopter was hit with a missile fired by Hezbollah at an Israeli naval vessel during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and was brought back into service after repairs.
Eurocopter AS565 Panthers serve both the air force and the navy. The air force is responsible for operating and maintaining the aircraft as well as training crew members, while the navy is responsible for the missions. The helicopters, which land on Sa'ar 5- and 6- class warships that should become operational in the coming years, allow the navy to expand its range of operational activity; locate threats on land, at sea, and underwater; and carry out various offshore search-and-rescue operations.
The Israeli Air Force has grounded all Eurocopter AS565 Panthers pending full clarification of Monday's incident to ensure there are no issues with the aircraft. This is a routine step that is taken after every crash and sometimes even after near-misses. This is in accordance with the air force's strict adherence to safety procedures, which has led to a significant decrease in crashes and injuries in recent decades. The last accident happened 14 months ago, when the Grob G-120 "Snunit" (Swallow) carrying Cpl. Lihu Ben-Bassa, 19, and Maj. Itay Zaiden, 42, crashed in southern Israel during a training flight. Ben-Bassa and Zaiden were both killed in the accident.
Yet we should also look at this fatal crash from another angle: The IDF in recent years has been the target of increasing criticism from the Israeli public, or in other words, has lost the public's trust. There will likely be evidence of the continuation of this trend in the Israel Democracy Institute's annual report, which it is set to publish on Wednesday.
The consensus around the IDF appears to increase only in times of crisis, such as wars or operations, or when there are casualties. The rest of the time, the IDF serves as a convenient punching bag. Even if some of the criticism is justified, we must not forget that those at the heart of security efforts have chosen to dedicate their lives to maintaining the security of the state and its citizens. Lt. Col. Erez Sachyani and Maj. Chen Fogel paid for that Monday with their lives in what was another painful reminder of the heavy price there is to pay for defending this country and those in it.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
