Avraham "Avi" Lanir was a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Air Force.
16 Facts About Avraham Lanir
2.
Avraham Lanir was the highest-ranking Israeli fighter pilot to fall into enemy hands.
3.
Avraham Lanir's father went on to become a senior member of the Shin Bet.
4.
Avraham Lanir enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 1959, training to become a fighter pilot.
5.
Avraham Lanir flew the Dassault Mirage III with 117 Squadron and on April 6,1967, scored his first aerial kill in a major skirmish along the Syrian border which ended with the downing of six Syrian jets.
6.
Avraham Lanir, flying Mirage 60, downed a SAF MiG-21 with cannon fire after closing in to a distance of 200 meters.
7.
The MiG exploded and Avraham Lanir flew right through the fireball, covering his aircraft with soot.
8.
The scorched aircraft earned the nickname "Black Mirage", and Avraham Lanir flew it during Operation Focus on June 5,1967, when he participated in a strike against the Egyptian air base at Fayid.
9.
Avraham Lanir was thereafter appointed to test pilot the "Technolog," the prototype that preceded the IAI Kfir.
10.
In 1971, Avraham Lanir was assigned command of 101 Squadron, operating the Dassault Mirage out of Hazor.
11.
Avraham Lanir scored his second aerial kill on November 9,1972, downing a Syrian MiG-21 while flying Mirage 72.
12.
On October 12,1973, a week after the Yom Kippur War began, Avraham Lanir scored his third and last aerial kill, downing a Syrian MiG-17 in the vicinity of Kuneitra while flying Mirage 58.
13.
On October 13,1973, Avraham Lanir was scrambled for a reconnaissance mission deep in Syrian territory.
14.
Avraham Lanir was not aware of the location of the mobile missile batteries that the Syrians had placed overnight, possibly due to not attending the morning squadron briefing.
15.
Foreign press reports claimed that Avraham Lanir had information on Israel's nuclear program.
16.
Former Israel Air Force Commander Mordechai Hod noted that Avraham Lanir had information that would have placed the existence of Israel at risk had he revealed it to the Syrians.