Wreckage of the Libyan civilian plane that was shot down by two Israeli fighter planes (Getty)

A civilian plane belonging to Libyan Arab Airlines was on a flight on February 21, 1973, and it was attacked by the Israeli Air Force in the Sinai region after it deviated from its course. It was classified as one of the largest humanitarian crimes committed against civilians in the early 1970s.

The plane and its crew

The Boeing 727 passenger plane, belonging to Libyan Arab Airlines, was on a regular flight, No. 114, on February 21, 1973, connecting Tripoli and Cairo international airports, passing through the Libyan city of Benghazi.

It took off from Tripoli International Airport in Libya, heading to Cairo Airport in Egypt, carrying 113 people, including women, children and the crew. The nationalities of the passengers varied between Arab, German and American.

The plane's crew consisted of 9 people, led by the French captain, "Jacques Bourgard", alongside his Libyan assistant, "Mahdi Ayyad", and 4 other Frenchmen who were working with both the French airlines and Libyan Arab Airlines.

The other 3 were of different nationalities, including a Lebanese stewardess.

The beginning of the journey

The Boeing 727 took off from Tripoli International Airport on February 21, 1973, then stopped briefly at Benghazi Airport, departing at approximately 10:45 local time in order to complete its journey to Cairo International Airport.

After less than 15 minutes, the crew felt that the plane was tilting slightly from its destination and heading in the north direction. The commander began discussing the matter with the engineer, a member of the flight crew, because he apparently felt that there was a problem with the technology for determining the plane’s location.

Demonstrators in a street in Detroit against the downing of the Libyan civilian plane (Getty)

The plane experienced technical problems due to heavy clouds and strong winds that resulted in sand storms in the area, close to its destination, and the clock was pointing to approximately 12 noon.

It was reported that the poor weather conditions caused blurred vision, in addition to a radar malfunction, forcing the plane’s crew to make the decision to rely entirely on the autopilot.

The French commander lost his way, and instead of heading towards Cairo, the plane deviated from its course.

The pilot realized as soon as he saw that the vehicle was flying over a desert area, that he had missed the course and was unintentionally heading towards Sinai, which was then occupied and under Israeli control since 1967.

The plane was lost

The crew found themselves flying over the Great Bardawil Lake, then over the Bir Jifjafa area, which included one of the most important Israeli military bases in North Sinai.

The Israeli pursuit began immediately after the air force base discovered the presence of the plane, which it considered to be a strange object that had penetrated the sky of an Israeli army base in the Sinai region.

The Israeli pilots who chased the plane at the time concluded that it was a civilian and Arab plane and that the speed at which it was traveling was slow, contrary to the speed of fighters, because it had strayed from its normal course and deviated for 10 minutes, meaning that the plane had traveled between 150 and 200 kilometers away from its original destination.

The Israeli pilots moved away and sent their report to their air base, awaiting the orders they would receive, and quickly the fighters returned to pursue and surround the Boeing 727.

Stalking and projection

Two McDonnell F-4E Phantom II fighter jets began flying near the civilian aircraft and conducting air and tracking maneuvers from all sides.

The French captain and his crew were surprised by the movements of the Israeli pilots and their pursuit, but they continued flying.

According to some accounts, the two Israeli fighters came very close to the civilian plane, and reports spoke of a distance that did not exceed 5 metres.

Israeli soldiers and a troop carrier guard the wreckage of the Libyan Arab Airlines plane (Getty)

The Israelis said that they tried to communicate with the French captain using sign language and force him to land, but he refused and was also responding to them by gesturing with his hand and trying to inform them that he would continue his journey and leave the field immediately towards the Suez Canal.

The pilot of the Libyan civilian plane realized that he had made a navigational error, and that he was flying over an Israeli army base, an area other than the one he intended.

Faced with the captain's refusal to land, the Israelis tried to force him to do so by targeting the nose and wings of the plane, but the captain quickly turned the plane around in preparation to change its course to leave Sinai airspace and enter Egyptian airspace.

The Israelis understood that he was trying to escape, so they made the decision to shoot down the plane, and bombed it with missiles, causing it to lose its balance and sink to the ground, killing most of those on board.

According to media sources, the attack on the Libyan plane was personally authorized by David Elazar, who was then Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army.

While other sources confirmed that Moshe Dayan, who was then Israeli Defense Minister, was the one who personally ordered the attack on the Libyan civilian plane.

Fear and panic inside the plane

In parallel with the Israeli pursuit of the Libyan civilian plane, panic and fear prevailed among its passengers and among the crew responsible for flying it.

Testimonies given by some survivors of the accident conveyed the atmosphere of horror experienced by the victims in that terrible moment before the plane was shot down.

An Egyptian army guard carrying two coffins for victims who were on board the Libyan civilian plane that was shot down by Israel (Getty)

Some reports stated that all the passengers closely witnessed the attack by the Israeli pilots, and the screams of women and children and the moans of the anxious and frightened passengers rose.

The plane began to shake as it lost balance, and the sound of missile shots and the outbreak of a fire in the back of the plane increased tension and collapse and hysteria spread among the passengers.

Based on the narration of one of the survivors of the accident, Fathi Jaballah Al-Komi, Libyan Foreign Minister Saleh Buisir, who was among the passengers, went to the cockpit and confirmed that the attack was being launched by Israeli fighters. He returned and stood in front of the passengers and told them that their plane was under Israeli aggression, and read: Verses from the Qur’an and he advised them to repeat the Shahada, and the last phrase he uttered was: “If we live, we are happy, and if we die, then we are martyrs.”

The attack on them was against the principles of international aviation law, which criminalizes the killing of innocent civilian passengers, in addition to some international agreements that prohibit changing the course of aircraft by force or seizing them, and such actions fall under the category of terrorist acts.

Survivors and victims

Most reports unanimously agree that out of 113 civilian crew members and passengers who were on board the Boeing 727, 108 were killed, and only 5 survived, and some of them later provided moving testimonies about this tragic accident.

The survivors of the accident were the co-pilot, Al-Mahdi Ayad, Fathi Jaballah Al-Koumi, and Asad Shaker Al-Tarhouni, of Libyan nationality, along with the Jordanian Abdullah Al-Khalili and the Egyptian Faisal Al-Sharaie.

The injured were admitted to the Israeli Beersheba Hospital, and after a few days, the Red Cross transported them by helicopter to Egypt to complete treatment, then they returned to their countries.

Some reports revealed that the Libyan passenger, Abu Bakr Al-Hajjaji, was the sixth survivor, but he died 15 days after the accident.

On the other hand, several writings focused on the identity of some of the victims, led by the Foreign Minister of Libya at the time, Saleh Buisir, TV director Awad Mustafa, and a number of Egyptian journalists and correspondents.

Israeli soldiers guard the wreckage of a Libyan Airlines plane (Getty)

Among the victims was the famous Egyptian TV presenter Salwa Hegazy, who traveled to Libya as part of a mission to train TV presenters for 3 weeks.

At the time scheduled for her return with the rest of her colleagues in the television work team, she did not find a place for her on the plane, so she waited for another plane, which was none other than the one that had been subjected to the Israeli bombing.

According to Libyan newspapers, immediately after the incident, the bodies of 55 victims of its citizens arrived in Libya, and they were buried on February 26, 1973, in a solemn funeral held in the city of Benghazi in the presence of thousands of Libyan citizens who raised slogans denouncing the crime that claimed the lives of innocent people and demanding that those responsible be held accountable.

Since then, the voices of the families of the victims and survivors of the Israeli bombing of the Libyan plane have increased, calling for the need to prosecute Israel for its crime and compensate their families, especially in light of the existence of evidence proving the Israeli army was wrong for launching a military attack on civilian passengers.

At a time when a number of victims' families threatened to resort to Arab and international human rights organizations and rejected the pretext of statute of limitations due to the gravity of the crime.

The black box

After the accident occurred, Israel was accused of deliberately shooting down the Libyan civilian plane, but its government did not acknowledge responsibility.

But on February 24, 1973, after the plane's black box was found, Israel admitted its responsibility for this disaster, confirming that it did so with the personal authorization of Chief of Staff David Elazar.

Years after this humanitarian catastrophe, the minutes of the Israeli Council of Ministers were declassified, which revealed Israel’s refusal to conduct an investigation into the incident because it believed that it was not at fault, because the Israeli Minister of Defense at the time, Moshe Dayan, considered the military attack on innocent people not intentional, and called on the authorities to The Israeli government offered financial compensation to the families of the victims, but to no avail.

The Egyptian army carrying two coffins for the victims of the Libyan plane that was shot down by Israel (Getty)

Reactions

Many parties denounced the Israeli military attack on the civilian aircraft, including the United States of America and Arab countries.

But on the other hand, according to several media reports, those following what happened on February 21, 1973 wondered why the United Nations did not take any action against Israel.

The Libyan leader at the time, Muammar Gaddafi, became angry and decided that it was necessary to respond to the actions of the Israeli army. Some accounts say that he planned to attack the ship of the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth II, because she was about to celebrate in Israel the 25th anniversary of its founding.

But the decision was opposed by then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

International Aviation Organization

The International Civil Aviation Organization had a strict position on this incident. It blamed the Israeli government for the attack, and at its extraordinary general meeting held on Tuesday, February 27, 1973 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, and although its work was devoted to studying the administrative and financial matters of the organization, At the request of Egypt, the issue of the Libyan plane was included, and those present observed a minute of silence to mourn the innocent victims.

The representative of Egypt said in his speech that what happened was a blatant crime against international civil aviation security, and that the attack raised global concern, and the representative of France supported this, noting that French nationals were among the victims.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites