This day (May 8) in 1972, a young Benjamin Netanyahu and another future Prime Minister, Ehud Barak (who was leading the raid), were among the elite Sayeret Matkal commandos who carried out the first successful raid on a hijacked airliner in history.
Sabena Flight 571 was hijacked by four Black September (offshoot of Yasser Arafat’s PLO) terrorists shortly after takeoff from Vienna. They forced the plane to land at Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion) with 90 passengers and crew aboard, demanding the release of 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists — or they would blow up the plane with everyone on board.
What followed was Operation Isotope — one of the most daring and successful counter-terrorism operations in history.
While Moshe Dayan negotiated, Israeli forces quietly disabled the plane’s tires and hydraulics. On May 9, 16 commandos disguised as airport mechanics in white overalls approached the aircraft.