Nearly 36 years have passed since Oct. 16, 1986, when a blast occurred in the Phantom jet piloted by Yishai Aviram and Ron Arad over Lebanon. Aviram was rescued, but Arad's fate remains a mystery and an open wound for Israel.
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Now, newly published documents shed light on what happened in a dramatic session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee days after Arad disappeared.
The meeting included the defense minister at the time (the late Yitzhak Rabin), and then-commander of the IAF and deputy commander of the Military Intelligence Directorate's Research Division.
According to the protocol, Rabin opened the session by explaining the mission on which Arad and Aviram had been dispatched. Then the late Maj. Gen. Amos Lapidot notes that the strikes the team carried out was "bigger than usual."
"It was conducted by six Phantom jets, each armed with 10 bombs. It was carried out at 3:45 p.m. Thursday afternoon. The plan was for the first pair of Phantoms to go in, bomb targets, and then two more to go in 20 minutes later. An hour or less after that, the third pair went in, which bombed from a relatively high altitude (15,000 feet). The lead jet released the bombs, and then suddenly there was a very strong explosion that damaged the plane and caused it to fall apart," Lapidot said.
Lapidot said the plane had disintegrated at 8,000 feet, and that Aviram had said that he had felt as if he were losing consciousness, and came to when he was hanging from his parachute. Aviram saw Arad hanging from his own parachute, took out his radio, and tried to contact Arad, unsuccessfully.
Lapidot explains to the committee members that it took the pilot and navigator four to five minutes to land and they had been under fire for most of their descent.
Arad and Aviram landed some four km. (2.5 miles) south of the target. Aviram entered a nearby wadi and hid among the scrub there. He was reportedly able to see Arad from a distance of about 200 meters [yards], called out to him, but did not receive a response.
Lapidot goes on to describe the rescue, saying that the Israelis had arranged for heavy cover to keep Aviram and Arad from being abducted by terrorists in the area, with direction from Aviram. Lapidot describes the plans for the rescue as "complicated and dramatic."
One of the combat helicopters deployed on the mission managed to reach Aviram, under fire. Aviram hung onto the helicopter.
Committee member Yossi Sarid asked if the pilot had been holding onto the outside of the helicopter with his own hands.
Lapidot: "Yes, he was holding on with his hands so [the helicopter] flew 5 km. [3 miles] at a slow speed for fear he would fall."
While there is a way of evacuating someone in these circumstances, Lapidot explained, the helicopter was under fire and the crew dropped the idea. A rescue aircraft was flying next to the helicopter to take Aviram on board.
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Lapidot was later informed that attempts to rescue Arad had continued throughout that night and the two days after his plane when down.
When asked what Israel knew about Arad's fate, Lapidot replies that the current picture indicated that he was alive an in the hands of Amal fighters, with a broken arm, although there were other reports that said he had been handed over to Syria. Lapidot said the possibility that the navigator was dead could not be discounted, but it was likelier that he was being held captive by Amal or some other group.
Later in the session, Rabin says he believes that everything possible to rescue Arad had been done.
"At 11:30 p.m. a large contingent of forces had to go in and sweep the area. This was 100 people, but based on a briefing the chief of staff and I received, it seems that there was doubt about the reports that Israeli pilots had spoken with both Aviram and Arad … All the reports we had gave us reason to believe he was no longer there. In conditions like these, a large contingent had to be sent in to search for him in the wadi at night. The conclusion was that there was little change of finding him outdoors, so I concluded that the forces should not be put in danger. We felt that [Arad] was in their [Lebanese] hands, alive or not," Rabin says.
