{"id":68975,"date":"2019-03-30T17:05:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=68975"},"modified":"2019-03-29T08:48:02","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T06:48:02","slug":"29-05-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=68975","title":{"rendered":"ENTEBBE HERO – PILOT FROM HIJACKED FLIGHT DIES AT 95"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>HERO PILOT FROM HIJACKED ENTEBBE FLIGHT DIES AT 95<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

AMY SPIRO <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Air France captain Michel Bacos refused to leave behind his Jewish and Israeli passengers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michel Bacos (R) speaks to the media in 1976. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Michel Bacos, the pilot of the Air France flight from Tel Aviv that was hijacked in 1976 and landed in Entebbe, has died at age 95.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian Estrosi \u2013 the mayor of Nice, where Bacos lived \u2013 announced the news on social media on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe refused to abandon his passengers, who were taken hostage because they were Israeli or of Jewish origin, risking his own life,\u201d Estrosi wrote. \u201cMichel bravely refused to surrender to antisemitism and barbarism and brought honor to France.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

President Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday that Bacos was \u201ca quiet hero and a true friend of the Jewish people. May his memory be a blessing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that the pilot \u201cstayed with the hostages through all their hardships, until IDF soldiers \u2013 led by my brother Yoni z\u201dl \u2013 freed him in a daring operation. I bow my head in his memory and salute Michel\u2019s bravery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 27, 1976, Bacos was the captain of Air France Flight 139, from Tel Aviv to Paris, with a stop in Athens.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the plane departed Greece, four hijackers took control of the cockpit and forced Bacos at gunpoint to head for Benghazi, Libya, and then Entebbe, Uganda.<\/span><\/p>\n

The terrorist \u201csat behind me with his gun pointed at my head,\u201d Bacos told Ynet in 2016. \u201cEvery time I tried to look in a different direction, he pressed the barrel of his gun against my neck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several days later, the terrorists split up the hostages between those who were Israeli or Jewish and those who were not. Bacos demanded the hijackers give him access to both groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019m responsible for all of the passengers and demand to be able to see all of them \u2013 be they Israeli or not \u2013 at any given moment,\u2019\u201d he recounted to Ynet. \u201cI insisted, and the Germans agreed. I was able to go from one hall to the other without receiving permission, every time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few days after that, the hijackers were planning to let Bacos, the rest of his crew and the remaining non-Jewish hostages go. But he refused.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI gathered my crew and told them there was no way we were going to leave \u2013 we were staying with the passengers to the end,\u201d he said. \u201cThe crew refused to leave, because this was a matter of conscience, professionalism and morality. As a former officer in the Free French Forces, I couldn\u2019t imagine leaving behind not even a single passenger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After the successful rescue by the IDF, Bacos was repeatedly honored for his heroic actions. That year he was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honor, France\u2019s highest decoration. In 2008, he was honored by B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International, and in 2016 by the American Jewish Committee. Bacos visited Israel several times after the incident, attending memorial ceremonies for Lt.-Col. Yoni Netanyahu, who was killed in the operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bacos continued to fly with Air France for six more years, before retiring in 1982 at age 58. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary, three children and several grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tributes to Bacos began to pour in on Wednesday, as news of his death spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe refused to leave the Jewish passengers behind and stayed with them until they were rescued by the IDF,\u201d wrote Dani Dayan, the consul-general to New York. \u201cHe passed away in France at the age of 95. We salute you, Captain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AJC said that it was \u201csaddened to learn of the passing of Michel Bacos, the Air France pilot who heroically refused to abandon Jewish hostages after his plane was hijacked to Entebbe. We honored him with the AJC Moral Courage Award at Global Forum 2016. May his memory be a blessing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israeli Airline Pilots Association wrote that \u201cthis dear man passed away today after a long life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pilots of the State of Israel salute Captain Bacos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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HERO PILOT FROM HIJACKED ENTEBBE FLIGHT DIES AT 95 AMY SPIRO Air France captain Michel Bacos refused to leave behind his Jewish and Israeli passengers. Michel Bacos (R) speaks to the media in 1976. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO) Michel Bacos, the pilot of the Air France flight from Tel Aviv that was hijacked in 1976 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68975"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69003,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68975\/revisions\/69003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}