In May 1983, two

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defens ...

aircraft, an

F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American Twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather Air combat manoeuvring#Tactics, tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States ...

and an

A-4 Skyhawk The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed ...

, collided in mid-air during a training exercise over the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

region, in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Notably, the F-15, (with a crew of two), managed to land safely at a nearby airbase, despite having its right wing almost completely sheared off in the collision. The

lifting body A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage ...

properties of the F-15, together with its overabundant engine thrust, allowed the pilot to achieve this unique feat.

Accident

On 1 May 1983, during an Israeli Air Force

dissimilar air combat training Dissimilar air combat training (DACT) was introduced as a formal part of US air combat training after disappointing aerial combat exchange rates in the Vietnam War. Traditionally, pilots would undertake air combat training against similar aircra ...

session over the

, an F-15D Eagle (or Baz) collided with an A-4 Skyhawk. The pilot of the Skyhawk was automatically ejected and his aircraft disintegrated. The right wing of the Eagle was sheared off roughly from the root. The crew of the two-seat training version F-15, pilot Zivi Nedivi and navigator Yehoar Gal, did not initially realize the extent of the damage, as fuel leaking profusely and vaporizing at the wing attachment was obscuring their view of the area where the wing once was. The F-15 started rolling uncontrollably after the collision and the instructor ordered an ejection. Nedivi, who outranked the instructor, decided not to eject and attempted recovery by engaging the

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and c ...

, and eventually regained control of the aircraft. He was able to maintain control because of the lift generated by the large areas of the fuselage,

stabilator A stabilator is a fully movable aircraft horizontal stabilizer. It serves the usual functions of longitudinal stability, control and stick force requirements otherwise performed by the separate parts of a conventional horizontal stabilizer and e ...

s, and remaining wing. Diverting to

Ramon Airbase Ramon Airbase ( he, בסיס חיל-האוויר רמון , ''Basis Hayil-HaAvir Ramon'', lit. ''Ramon Air Force Base'') is an Israeli Air Force base southwest of Beersheba, near the town of Mitzpe Ramon. Also titled Kanaf 25 ( he, כנף 25, li ...

, the F-15 landed at twice the normal speed to maintain the necessary lift, and its

tailhook A tailhook, arresting hook, or arrester hook is a device attached to the empennage (rear) of some military fixed-wing aircraft. The hook is used to achieve rapid deceleration during routine landings aboard aircraft carrier flight decks at sea, ...

was torn off completely during the landing. Nedivi managed to bring his F-15 to a complete stop approximately from the end of the runway. He later told

The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

, "it's highly likely that if I had seen it clearly I would have ejected, because it was obvious you couldn't really fly an airplane like that." He added, "Only when cDonnell Douglaslater went to analyze it, they said, OK, the F-15 has a very wide iftingbody; you fly fast enough and you're like a rocket. You don't need wings."

Aftermath

The aircraft, 106 Squadron's 957 ''Markia Schakim'' ( he, מרקיע שחקים, ''Sky Blazer''), was transported by road to an IAF maintenance unit at

Tel Nof Tel Nof Israeli Air Force ( he, בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר תֵּל נוֹף) , also known as Air Force Base 8, is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force. It is located near Rehovot, Israel. Tel Nof houses seve ...

, where it was repaired. Having already claimed four enemy aircraft during the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee ( he, מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג ''Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil'' or ''Mivtsa Sheleg'') by the Israeli government, later known in Israel as the Lebanon War or the First L ...

, the repaired aircraft was to claim a shared kill of another Syrian

MiG-23 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generati ...

on November 19, 1985.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Negev mid-air collision Israeli Air Force Aviation accidents and incidents in Israel Aviation accidents and incidents in 1983 Mid-air collisions Mid-air collisions involving military aircraft May 1983 events in Asia 1983 in Israel