We Will Not Be Hijacked

"If the world had listened", argued Bar-Lev, 9/11 events might have been avoided.

September 6th, 1970 was a seminal day for international civil aviation. For the first time, after dozens of hijackings of passenger planes around the globe - El Al Captain Uri Bar-Lev and his crew managed to thwart an attempt to hijack their plane while it was still in the air.

To this day, their actions are considered the one and only thwarting operation in civil aviation's history.

Uri Bar-Lev's story tells of the beginning of the Israeli Air Force and El Al Airlines. From his childhood in Avihayil, through his moves to Haifa and Tel Aviv "to learn a craft," his joining the Palmach (an elite combined strike force of the Haganah), to serendipitously becoming a fighter pilot.

His is a story filled with moments of levity and uncompromising battles all of which he came on top of injuries sustained in a severe car accident, thwarting terrorists, the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), aviation elements in Israel and around the world, and finally his battle with cancer.