roving (#12018),
Thank you for a most informative link. Having put in a Post on this very subject (Inflation) many moons ago, under the title "Economics for Tiny Tots", I tried to recover it through "Search this Thread" without success (there's a surprise!) As so often, Google saved the day and I found it on Page 27 of the Archive. When time allows, will compare this Inflation Table with the ones I used.
But that is not the point of this Post. Roaming around in the Archive (as one does), I came across a subject which our long-term readers will remember well. I cannot do better than to reproduce it here:
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"Danny42C
1st Dec 2014, 00:07
As this Thread has been running for 6 years, has generated 6,500+ Posts spread over 327 Pages and is still going strong, it occurred to me that some of our more recently joined contributors may not have had the time or the stamina to work through all the "back numbers".
This would be a pity, for many of them are well worth digging out, and I thought I would point the way to one of the most exciting and "cliff-hangering" of them all. This is regle's (RIP) account of the Tel Aviv hijack (42 years back this last May), when he wasa 707 Captain with SABENA.
I thought to list pages and Post numbers. From memory, I'm sure the whole story was brilliantly written out in great detail by Reg from beginning to end, but now it seeems that the most dramatic part (the end) has been taken down. No matter: here is the "steer"to what is still on Thread:
30th May 2010, p.89 #1776 Flight to Hell Aviv
1st Jun 2010, p.90 #1786 The time has come...
"And there I must leave you again until the next instalment"
3rd Jun 2010, p.90 #1790 More...
4th Jun 2010, p.90 #1796 Into the Lion's den.
5th Jun 2010, p.90 #1798 A new day dawns...
6th Jun 2010, p.91 #1801 Enough is as good as a feast.....
and:
"I am going to disappoint a lot of people but I have come to the conclusion that it is better to leave you all "cliff hanging" as it were. so there will be no more on the events of nearly forty years ago from me. It left an indelible scar upon my life and the life of my family and I pay homage to the people of all faiths who suffered . Please understand. Regle"
Reg died on 1st August 2010.
Wiki has the whole story (Sabena Flight 571), but, as I recollect, it was (originally) much more completely and better told by Reg himself on this Thread, where he carried on Posting (at the time) after #1801 until the successful end of the affair (marred only by the later death of one passenger wounded in the firefight). (And, IIRC, Reg flew the aircraft back to Brussels the next day !)
He was (rightly) fêted for his coolness and acumen throughout; he was honoured by the Belgian King; the story was told in the media around the world, exciting admiration and respect on all sides.
Why these his final Posts were taken down (presumably by him) is a mystery to me, but of course "we understand", Reg, and we must not pry or speculate now or ever. So, from one old Arnold Scheme Aviation Kay-Det to another: Cheers, Reg !
Requiescas in Pace.
Danny.
Warmtoast
1st Dec 2014, 17:55
Danny42C
Why these his final Posts were taken down (presumably by him) is a mystery to me
I assume something about them must have upset him. I posted some UK press cuttings about the event and he asked me to remove them, which I did (Page 91 Posts #1806 and #1807 refer)
Meanwhile your post prompted me to explore further and was surprised to learn that a young (Lieutenant at the time) Benjamin Netanyahu participated in the rescue and was wounded.
Two years ago there was a conference held in Israel to mark the 40th anniversary of the Sabena rescue mission. As reported in the Jerusalem Post at the time:
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"On May 8, 1972, four Palestinian terrorists from Black September boarded Sabena Flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv. Twenty minutes after taking off from a scheduled stop, the hijackers took control of the flight and instructed the captain to continue as planned to Israel’s Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport). Less than 24 hours later, Israeli commandos, among them today’s most prominent Israeli leaders, launched a daring operation to rescue the flight’s passengers and retake the plane.
Soon after realizing the gravity of the situation, English-born Captain Reginald Levy radioed ahead to Israel to notify authorities of the terrorist plot flying towards them at hundreds of miles per hour. Then-defense minister Moshe Dayan immediately began organizing a response, a perhaps far-fetched plan to rescue the passengers.
In initial contacts, the hijackers made their demands: They would free the passengers and crew in exchange for the release of over 300 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
After nightfall, hours after the plane had parked near Lod Airport’s lone terminal, Israeli forces carefully snuck under the plane to deflate its tires and disable its hydraulic systems. In an attempt to calm the terrorists after they discovered the plane had been disabled, Captain Levy kept them occupied through the night with constant chatter, discussing “everything under the sun … from navigation to sex,” he later recalled.
In the morning, the hijackers sent the plane’s captain to show the Israelis that they indeed possessed adequate explosives to destroy the plane. Levy, realizing that the only hope for him and the passengers (one of whom was his wife) lay in the hands of the Israelis, provided them with detailed about the hijackers’ whereabouts and the layout of the plane.
Armed with a better understanding of what they were up against, 16 commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit disguised themselves as airplane mechanics. The team was commanded by current Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Other members of the team included current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, former MK and Mossad chief Danny Yatom and former MK Uzi Dayan. The commandos approached the plane and pretended to examine the equipment on its underbelly.
Having successfully reached the plane without raising suspicion, the commandos quickly removed the Boeing 707’s emergency exit doors and immediately engaged the terrorists. “It was over quickly, in seconds,” former Sayeret Matkal soldier Eliezer Sacks recently recalled to The Jerusalem Post. Hours after being freed from the hijacked jetliner, one passenger told Channel 1, “We saw what appeared to be an ElAl crew approaching, within one minute [they] broke into plane. Within two minutes it was all over.”
Another passenger described the firefight, saying that first shots fired by the commandos hit one of the female hijackers in the rear of the plane who was gripping a hand grenade. The man, excitedly recalling the events to Channel 1, said he immediately grabbed the grenade and held the spoon down to stop it from exploding.
Two of the terrorists were killed in the raid and two others, females, were captured. One passenger was killed in the firefight and six passengers were wounded. Netanyahu was also shot during the operation, reportedly by friendly fire.
In a touching close to the story, 35 years after the Sabena crew and passengers were rescued, one of the commandos who took part in the raid returned Sabina Captain Reginald Levy’s captain hat to his daughter, Linda Lipschitz, then an editorial assistant at The Jerusalem Post. Levy, who remained in contact with Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres for the remainder of his life, passed away last year at the age of 88.
Along with the Entebbe Operation four years later, the rescue of Sabena Flight 571 remains one of the most daring Sayeret Matkal operations known to the public. The operation has been studied and greatly praised by security forces the world over for its efficiency and success. Steve Linde contributed to this report
Full details here together with two links to YouTube videos of the rescue:
This Week in History: Israeli commandos retake Flight 571 (http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/This-Week-in-History-Israeli-commandos-retake-Flight-571)"...
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Subsequently, I learned that Reg's Posts had been collated into a posthumous excellent book: "Night Flak and HiJack" published by his family. Clearly the Posts relating to the incident had (quite understandably) been taken down to protect book sales. I have the "Kindle" version, and it is an excellent read. It is available from the Brazilian River.
I would assume that it has dropped out of the "best-seller" list over the years, and I hope this my mention of it may reawaken interest in it.
Rather "a big helping", but "when the Lord made Time, He made plenty of it".
Danny.