JEWISH WORLD

1970, Khaled and a male accom- plice, a Nicaraguan American named Patrick Arguello, boarded El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York. Soon after takeoff, Bar-Lev and his co-pilot got word that two terrorists were hijacking the plane. They had shot and gravely wounded an El Al flight attendant and had put a gun to the head of another, demanding to be let into the cockpit, which Bar-Lev had immediately locked. The next 2 1/2 minutes were the most momentous of Bar-Lev’s life. I knew what they would do to me and the crew and the Jewish passengers if we were taken. “There was no training in Israel against hijacking,” he told J. last week from his home on Moshav Avichayil, north of Netanya. “No method on how to prevent it. You can’t teach it, so nobody taught me, but I was an [Air Force] pilot.” From the cockpit, he heard the distress from the cabin. “I thought, What can I do? How can I save her?” he recalled, fearing for the flight attendant. “I knew what they would do to me and the crew and the Jewish passengers if we were taken.” B ar-Lev flashed back to his ear- liest flight training. In the Air Force, he practiced on a highly maneuverable vintage prop plane, conducting climbing, diving and banking exercises. Some 20 years later, he was in Seattle with El Al colleagues to train on the new Boeing 707 passenger aircraft. He wondered whether the 707 was as nimble as the prop plane. “I asked [the Boeing trainer], ‘Can you do these [maneuvers] for this plane?” Bar-Lev re- called. “He said yes, if you don’t go over nega- tive-2 G.” “G” refers to G (or gravity) forces, used to describe the rapid acc- eleration of an object rela- tive to Earth’s gravity. G- forces can be induced by such movements as a high-speed aerial dive, akin to an express elevator dropping suddenly. Back on board Flight 219, according to Bar- Lev, Khaled had pulled the pins on two hand grenades. With moments to spare, Bar-Lev put the plane in a steep dive. The aircraft plummeted 10,000 feet in under 60 seconds. He knew his pas- sengers, all seated and strapped in, would be safe. The terrorists were another matter. Arguello and Khaled were thrown to the floor. Khaled passed out, dropping her grenades; they failed to go off. Once the plane leveled out, one of the two on-board Shin Bet sky marshals shot Arguello dead. Khaled was physically subdued. B ar-Lev was instructed by his superiors in Israel to fly to Tel Aviv (little did he know, multiple coordinated hijackings were taking place simultaneously). But with his crew member gravely wound- ed, Bar-Lev knew he had to land quickly. He disobeyed orders and instead requested an emergency landing at London’s Heath-row Airport. The wounded crew mem- ber was rushed to the hospital and survived. Though his quick action was heroic enough, today Bar-Lev says “the best thing I did in my life” was saving the Shin Bet air mar- shals, who might have been charged with Arguello’s death by British authorities. Thanks to some crafty coordination with another El Al flight on the tarmac, the two marshals slipped out of Bar-Lev’s plane undetected and onto the other Israel-bound flight. Bar-Lev retired as a pilot in 1974 and lives with his wife, Yona, on their moshav, where he enjoys gardening and spending time with his children and grand- children. As for Khaled’s San Francisco State invite, he said he believes in free speech, but feels she represents a line not to be crossed. “There is a limit,” he said. Bar-Lev has refused offers to meet with Khaled in a public dia- logue. He said he might be willing on the condition that he be allowed to ask her one question: What would you say if your chil- dren were on a bus targeted by ter- rorists? “What will you say now?” he mused. “I didn’t get a reply, and we never met. It was a cynical question.” Dan Pine is a J. staff writer. He retired as news editor in 2020. Dan can be reached at dan@ @jweekly.com . Hijacker continued from page 12 JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 16-22, 2020 23 Bar-Lev quickly put the plane in a steep dive. The aircraft plummeted 10,000 feet in under 60 seconds. Leila Khaled is a member of Palestian hijackers work ing for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.