Israel is in shock today following the tragic death of Captain Asaf Ramon, who was killed in a crash while flying an IAF F16-A.
What makes this whole incident so bone-chilling for a nation of people who are no strangers to tragedy is the fact he was the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the fatal space shuttle Columbia mission in 2003.
Asaf Ramon’s aircraft crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. The Israel Defense Forces carried out an aerial and terrestrial search of the area for some 90 minutes before locating the crash site.
IAF Blackhawk (“Yanshuf”) helicopters carrying soldiers from 669, the Air Force’s elite search and rescue unit, were the first to locate the plane, and they retrieved the pilot’s body.
At a press conference Sunday evening, a grim-faced Brigadier General Yochanan Locker of the Israel Air Force confirmed the circumstances of the crash.
“The plane crashed during a routine training flight,” Locker said. “Helicopters, rescue forces from [elite unit] 669, grounds troops and rescue personnel were dispatched to the site.
“The remains of the plane were found after an extensive search. The Air Force commander has established a committee of inquiry headed by a colonel to investigate the incident,” he said. “It is a difficult day for the Air Force [when there is] an accident like this, in which people are killed.”
Asaf, 21, excelled in the IAF’s grueling training course for pilots. In June he received a presidential honor and was given his pilot’s wings by President Shimon Peres. He then joined the squadron in which the course’s advanced training program is carried out.
The young pilot escaped another plane crash only half a year ago during a routine training flight.
The Air Force commander, Major General Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel’s F-16 squadrons until further notice, the military said in a statement.
The IAF is investigating a number of possible causes and is looking into whether Ramon was suffering from any physiological problems, such as vertigo or a blackout, at the time of the crash.
The young captain had passed a physical exam and was not known to have any medical problems.
—-
Asaf, was the eldest of Ilan Ramon’s four children. He was 15 when his father died; shortly afterward, he promised on a number of occasions that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and serve as a pilot and possibly even as an astronaut in the future. He is survived by his mother, and his two brothers and sister.
Shortly before receiving his wings, Ramon told the IAF journal that, “It was important to me to mention my father and tell his stories, because I am proud of him and proud to be his son. But I also want people to know me as Asaf and not just as the son of the astronaut Ilan Ramon.”
Tonight, my thoughts and prayers are with Rona Ramon and the rest of Asaf’s family.
Update: The Jerusalem Post reports:
In a Sunday evening statement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the entire nation was “draped in sorrow over the death of Assaf, who fell from the skies, like his father Ilan, of blessed memory.”
“This is a horrible tragedy for Rona and the entire Ramon family. It is a tragedy for the people of Israel. I was moved when Ilan, the youngest of the pilots who destroyed the death generator in Iraq, took with him into space a reminder of the destruction of the Holocaust,” the prime minister said, referring to a tiny Torah that survived Bergen-Belsen that Ilan took with him on the ill-fated Columbia space mission.
“I was again moved deeply when Assaf continued in the path of his father and completed the pilot’s course with distinction. The loss of one of these wonderful people, father and son, is a tragedy by itself.”
“The loss of both brings with it unbearable pain. There is no consolation for Rona and the Ramon family, no consolation for the people of Israel. There are only tears,” the prime minister’s statement concluded.
Speaking during a joint press conference with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell on Sunday evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “Our heart breaks for Rona Ramon, Assaf’s siblings, and the whole Ramon family… However, we must continue to build our strength, while extending our hand to peace.”
President Shimon Peres, who attended Ramon’s IAF pilots course graduation ceremony in June, called the young pilot’s death “more than a tragedy.”
“What happened today is more than a tragedy. In our worst nightmares we could never had imagined such a heart-breaking accident,’ Peres said in a statement.
The president went on to praise both Assaf’s father, the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, and Assaf himself.
“I knew them both, father and son – Ilan and Assaf, fighters, scholars, courageous men, dreamers… As a family they are a symbol for all that is great in Jewish history, all that is courageous in the Jewish state,” Peres wrote in the statement.
Update: Jameel, who broke the news to me at the blogger’s conference, writes of a disturbing incident:
Rona Ramon, mother of fallen IAF pilot Assaf Ramon shocked IDF officers who arrived at her home to deliver the news of her son’s death.
When the IDF officers arrived, Rona had already been called by news reporters asking for her feedback.
This is exactly the reason the Muqata blog refused to report the name of the pilot prior to receiving permission from the IDF censor.
News agencies and blogs that reported Ramon’s death prior to the removal of the media blackout (and the family’s notification), should be ashamed of themselves.
