OPERATION

ENTEBBE
[Operation Jonathan]

Sqn Ldr TNP De Silva

No 47 JC & SC

FLOW OF PRESENTATION
Aspiration of this study
History of hijacking
Dawson's Field hijackings
PFLF actions in Middle East
Hijacking of air France flight 139
Planning of Rescue operation.
Air Power applications.
Conclusion.

ASPIRATION OF THIS
STUDY
Aspiration of this study is to value the
Anti-hijacking mission Operation
Entebbe and Air Power application
for the operation.

HISTORY OF HIJACKING
Aircraft hijackingis the unlawful seizure of
anaircraftby an individual or a group.
The first recorded aircraft hijack took place
on February 21, 1931, inPeru.

DAWSON'S FIELD
HIJACKINGS

In theDawson's Field hijackings(6

September 1970), fourjet aircraftbound for
New York City and one for London
werehijacked by members of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and instead landed at the PFLP's
"Revolutionary Airport".

Contd...

Cont...

PFLF ACTIONS IN
MIDDLE EAST
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was
a Marxist - Leninist paramilitary group that was
formed in1967 after the Six Day War, Sponsored by
Syria.
Dr George Habash, a Palestinian Christian, led the
group but, unlike Yasser Arafat, he remained wedded
to the concept of Pan-Arabism as the means to
counter western imperialism and the state of Israel.
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HIJACKING OF AIR
FRANCE FLIGHT 139
On 27 June 1976,Air France Flight 139,
anAirbus A300(Airbus A300B4-203),
registration F-BVGG (c/n 019), originated
fromTel Aviv, Israel, carrying 246 mainly
Jewish and Israeli passengers and a crew of
12,an additional 58 passengers, heading for
Paris was hijackd by PFLP.
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Contd...

Contd...

Entebbe Air Port

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Contd...

The local government supported the

hijackers
and
dictatorIdi Amin
personally welcomed them, Air France
flight 139 stopped at Entebbe Air Port.
After moving all hostages from the
airplane to a airport building, the
hijackers separated the Israelis from
the larger group and forced them into
a separate room
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Contd...

The hijackers had the stated objective to free

40 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants
imprisoned in Israel and 13 prisoners in four
other countries in exchange for the hostages.
Over the following two days, 148 non-Israeli
hostages were released and flown out to Paris.
Some 94 mainly Israeli passengers, along with
the 12-member Air France crew, remained as
hostages and were threatened with death.

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PLANNING OF RESCUE
OPERATION
In the week before the raid, Israel tried a
number of political avenues to obtain the
release of the hostages. However diplomatic
solution failed.
Operation called Operation Entebbe or
Military code name Thunder Bolt was the
only solution for the rescue the hostages.

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Contd... Fly C-130 in 100 Ft for

4000 Km (2500 Miles)

Refuel at Kenya and

fly to Entebbe Airport

Land at Entebbe,
attack and rescue
hostages

Board the hostages

and come to Israel
via Kenya

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Contd...

Lockheed
C-130
Hercules
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Contd...

Task Force

The ground
command and
control element
overall ground
commander,
Brig. Gen
Shomron, the air
force
representative
Col. Ami Ayalon

TheSayeret
Matkalforce led
byMajor Shaul
Mofaz

The assault
element
led by
Lt. Col. Yonatan Net
anyahu
,

Operation
Thunder
Bolt

The securing
element

TheParatroopers
force led by
Col. Matan Vilnai
TheGolaniforce
led byCol. Uri Sagi

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AIR POWER APPLICATIONS.

C-130 Hercules was the machine made this
operation achievable.

Key success came with C-130 undetected flying

for long distance by Lt Col Joshua Shani. (Rtd as
Brid Gen with 13000 Hrs with C-130 -7000 hrs)

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Contd...
Combat
Air Ops
support Operations

Air Power doctrine, This can be categorize

as

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CONCLUSION
The operation took place at night.

Israeli transport planes carried 100 commandos over 2,500

miles (4,000km) to Uganda for the rescue operation.

The operation, which took a week of planning, lasted 90

minutes.
102 hostages were rescued.

Five Israelicommandoswere wounded and one, the unit

commander,Lt. Col.Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed. All the
hijackers, three hostages and 45 Ugandan soldiers were

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