IAF releases never-before-seen footage of Ron Arad
'On this day 32 years ago, the navigator Ron Arad fell captive,' said the official statement published Monday on IAF's social media page and was accompanied by archive pictures showing the navigator wearing a flight suit as well as standing next to his friends in civilian clothing.
Israel's Air Force (IAF) released on Tuesday the never-before-seen archive footage of navigator Ron Arad who went missing almost 30 years ago after ejecting out of his plane over Lebanon.
The photos, publishes on the day commemorating 32 years since Arad’s disappearance, show the navigator wearing a flight suit, as well as standing next to his friends, wearing civilian clothing.
“The longing is endless. On this day 32 years ago, the navigator Ron Arad fell captive,” said the statement on IAF’s official Facebook page, accompanying the newly published footage.
Last May, Arad would have celebrated his 60th birthday.
On October 16, 1986, Arad along with pilot Yishai Aviram, embarked on a mission, which supposed to have neutralized terror targets in southern Lebanon. Following a mistake in explosive ordnance disposal procedure, an explosive detonated near an IAF Phantom Jet they were flying.
Arad and Aviram had to abandon the aircraft, and while the pilot was rescued by a Cobra helicopter, the navigator fell prisoner to the Shiite Amal Movement.
During the first two years of captivity, Arad maintained communication with the outside world, as three of his letters and a picture had been passed to Israeli government through European mediators, who also negotiated his release.
Later, Arad had apparently been transferred to Iran or another Shiite organization, and after May 5, 1988, the communication channels were cut off. During his captivity Arad was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
In 2006, Lebanese TV station LBC broadcasted an exclusive video of the captured navigator, which they received from the Shiite organization.
In the video, Ron Arad described his training in the Israel Air Force.
"I am a soldier in the Israeli army … The first year of training I studied mechanical engineering at the Be'er Sheva University,” the navigator is seen explaining in the video.
In January of 2006, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that he believed the navigator Ron Arad is dead.
Nasrallah added he did not base his conviction on facts but rather on calculations.
The terror group’s leader recounted an incident in 1989 when Arad was able to escape, saying he may have died in the mountainous countryside of southeastern Lebanon in an accident while fleeing. He speculated that no one had discovered his body.
"A theory is that he escaped. He did not know the mountain area. He fell in a valley, was stuck somewhere and died, without anyone knowing about it. This is an analysis," Nasrallah stressed.
Several months earlier, a former German mediator was quoted as saying Arad died in 1996 after Hezbollah handed him over to its Iranian sponsors. But the Israeli government has said then it was still trying to learn Arad's fate and bring him home to Israel.
