Entebbe Rescue

On June 27, 1976, four terrorists forced an Air France Airbus to land in Uganda, Africa. They quickly demanded that Israel release 53 convicted terrorists. The hijackers freed the French crew and non-Jewish passengers, while retaining 105 Jewish and Israeli hostages. A 48-hour deadline was set before executions would begin. Faced with little choice, the Israeli government announced that it would enter into negotiations. A new ultimatum was issued for 13:00 on Sunday, July 4. The only airplane capable of a rescue operation was the C-130 Hercules. On July 1, the mission's overall commander, Brig. General Dan Shomron (later to become the IDF Chief-of-Staff), presented his plan to the IDF Commander and Israel's Defense Minister.

The aircraft took off at 13:20 on July 3 and headed south. The lead Hercules carried the rescue force, led by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu.

Skirting thunderstorms over Lake Victoria, the Hercules transports neared the end of the 7-hour, 40-minute flight. A surprise awaited them: the runway lights were on! Despite this, they landed undetected at 23:01 (local time), only one minute past their planned arrival time.

The soldiers freed the hostages in a lightning attack, killing all eight terrorists in the process. Tragically, force commander Yoni Netanyahu was killed as he led the hostages toward the safety of the aircraft; additionally, two hostages were killed in the crossfire inside the airport. By 23:59 the planes were on their way home. The operation, which was predicted to last one hour, in fact took only 58 minutes.