Chapter 1
This story is one of the most daring missions to rescue hostages by Israel intelligence and military. To rescue the hostages they had not only to fight the hijackers but also with the military of a hostile country. Such was the situation that there were only 48 hours to strategize and plan and only 60 minutes to execute the entire operation.
On 27 June 1976, people start their day as usual on a bright sunny day, suddenly information about some developing crisis reaches the special operations team. Air France Flight 139, heading from Tel Aviv to Paris via Athens carrying 246 passengers on board consisting of mainly Israeli along with a crew of 12 was hijacked when en route from Athens to Paris.
Two hijackers were Germans and the remaining two were from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Hijackers grounded the plane at Benghazi, Libya for refuelling. They left for Entebbe Airport in Uganda along with the hostages.
The hijackers were equipped with Guns, Hand Grenades. The special operation team laid their hands on some of the old maps of Entebbe, Uganda to access the situation. They found that Entebbe airport was about 5000 kilometres away from Israel.
Chapter 2
At Entebbe, the hijackers transferred all the passengers of the plane to the transit hall of an old terminal building. These hijackers were joined by four other hijackers and were supported by the forces of Ugandan president Idi Amin.
Ugandan president was a media attention seeker and assured the hostages of their release by peaceful negotiations. The next day on 28 of June hijackers demanded a sum of 5 million dollars and release of 53 Palestine prisoners lying in the jails of Israel. They further threatened to execute the hostages in case their demands are not fulfilled.
On 29th June helped by Ugandan soldiers, the hijacker’s separated the Israeli hostages into another room. Hijackers released 48 hostages who were flown by plane to Paris.
Remaining 106 hostages were kept at the old terminal building and amongst them were the 12 Air France crew members who refused to leave. There were attempts to find a diplomatic solution by different government’s envoy, but hijackers refused all such attempts.
Israeli special operation team was following every development that was unfolding. When attempts of negotiations failed the only option left for Israel was to rescue the hostages was to launch an operation. The operation was codenamed Operation Thunderbolt.
The operation started by preparing a demo model of Entebbe Airport. The special operation team, contacted a pilot stationed in Nairobi and an Ex agent of Mossad to provide an aerial view and possible pictures of Entebbe Airport.
The pilot flew a small plane from Nairobi directly to Over the Entebbe Airport taking pictures of the Airport. Upon confrontation, he told the ATC, that his small plane has developed some snag and was circling the airport to land. Eventually, after circling for three times he reported that his snag was fixed and he was heading back.
Chapter 3
Pictures taken by the plane provided the first glimpse of the airport and its surrounding area. Special operation team was busy in planning. A plan to send rescue commandos to Kenya and cross lake Victoria in small rubber boats over to Uganda and rescue the hostages by killing the hijackers.
The Israelis abandoned this plan because they lacked the necessary time and also they had received information that Lake Victoria was inhabited by the crocodiles.
Released hostages gave an insight of this hijack and told that hijackers are supported by the military force of Idi Amin. The task on their hand was getting worse than expected, now they had to fight not only the hijackers but also soldiers of the Ugandan army supported by Idi Amin.
Special operation team now starts estimating the number of hijackers. Based on the Intel they estimated the number of hijackers to be around 10 and about 120-130 heavily armed soldiers guarding the airport.
The air force chief called the squadron commander of Hercules C130. This plane was selected because it has a huge carriage capacity and loading and unloading can be done quickly.
The problem was to carry over such a large plane without being detected by hostile nations. It was planned that the plane would be flown at a very low level along the red sea so that it is not detected by radars of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Even they happen to cross the Red Sea, they still could not land such a big plane during the night when lights of the runway are switched off. The runway itself would not be visible to the pilots. They constructed their equipment radar system that identifies the difference between landing in water, sand or hard runway.
Chapter 4
Timings were precisely calculated to reach Entebbe airport after the last flight for the day had departed and the airport was not operational. Lights of the runway remain switched on for about 20 minutes after the departure of the last flight. The question of landing a large plane on the runway without being detected by ATC loomed largely.
It was estimated precisely that it takes about 10 minutes for information to reach through a series of phone calls from ATC to higher authorities and it was within this duration of 10 minutes the planes would be landing.
Next part of the plan was to get into the old terminal building about two kilometres away from the landing area and release hostages. The team observed that the soldiers used to salute at any passing limousine believing that they might be carrying a high ranking official.
The whole idea was to surprise the hijackers and the soldiers. Another big problem and that was related to fuel, it seemed like a one-way ticket. Hercules C130 could reach the Entebbe Airport in Uganda but would require refuelling for returning with hostages.
They focussed on the pictures of Entebbe Airport again and was decided that the Ugandan fuel would be stolen for refuelling the Hercules C130. One of the agents was also sent to Nairobi with cash to purchase fuel in case of any adversities.
The pieces of plan were all laid down. A team of army commandos were assembled under the leadership of Lt. Col. Netanyahu. All the necessary pieces of equipment checked. They stitched a Ugandan flag in their uniform so that they could pass through the gates.
A Mercedes car was prepared with tinted glasses to resemble the car of a high ranking official and a Ugandan license plate along with a flag was provided to the Mercedes.
A major obstacle was that this operation was not yet approved by the government. Had the team delayed in taking off, the risk of reaching Entebbe Airport in Uganda before the hijacker’s deadline would never have been possible.
Chapter 5
The operation had received only a verbal approval; there were four Hercules C130 in this team. The first batch consisting of two Hercules C130 took off each with an excess weight of about 40,000 kilograms. Remaining two Hercules C130, followed.
Flying for about 3 and a half hours, they crossed the Red Sea and entered into Eritrea, where there were no radars. So these planes climbed to a height of 20,000 feet. With only 1 hour remaining to reach their destination the final approval for the operation was received by the team.
The first two planes reached Entebbe Airport in Uganda, the visibility of the runway was good and the runway had its lights turned on. As soon as the planes landed the Mercedes and the other military vehicles were unloaded and moved straight towards the old terminal building.
Two guards were guarding the entrance gates of this building, they were aware that Idi Amin had recently purchased a white Mercedes, ordered the vehicles to stop.
Netanyahu ordered the commandos to shoot the guards using silenced pistols, the fire missed and the guards were killed by another commando using an un-silenced gun.
The Israelis commandos left their vehicles and ran towards the terminal. They shouted over to hostages to lay down. Two hostages were killed mistakenly identified as hijackers.
Commandos found that only one hijacker was guarding them during that moment. This hijacker was executed, and later team went to other rooms and launched grenades that killing other hijackers.
Chapter 6
Meanwhile, the other three C-130 Hercules aeroplanes had landed and unloaded armoured personnel carriers to provide defence during the anticipated hour of refuelling. The sounds of hand grenade alerted the soldiers, and they launched fire from their automatic weapons and used RPG.
The reinforcements from other plane had arrived and the gun battle intensified. After a few minutes, there was silence all around. All the hostages were taken out from the terminal building and loaded into trucks.
The refuelling party was loading the planes with Ugandan oil. The trucks reach the plane and were loaded. The Ugandan soldiers climbed the ATC tower and began firing indiscriminately at the retreating Israeli commandos.
In the gun battle, the team’s leader Lt. Col. Netanyahu was killed and five of the commandos were wounded. The Israelis then destroyed Ugandan MiG fighter planes to prevent them from pursuing the planes.
The lights of the runway were turned off during the gun battle. The planes took off one after another leaving Entebbe Airport from a dark runway. Two of the planes carrying the hostages were refuelled in Nairobi.
All the commandos and the hostages were provided with a hero’s welcome in Israel. Idi Amin later ordered the killing of hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda in retaliation for Kenya’s assistance to Israel in the raid.
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