BRAVE RESCUE ATTEMPTS

OPERATION RED WINGS

In 2005, the SEALs went to the Kunar Province, Afghanistan to

neutralize Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. While on route the SEAL

Team was confronted by 200 Afghan fighters. Seven helicopters

tried to rescue the SEALs but they failed resulting in the greatest

single loss of life for the Naval Special Forces since World War II.

THE RESCUE OF ROGER LOCHER

On June 2, 1972, the commander of the 7th Air Force cancelled the

entire strike mission set for Hanoi to rescue Roger Locher. The direct

task force involved 119 aircrafts, including helicopters, bombers

and tankers. The commanding officers had recognized that the one

thing keeping the troops motivated was the certainty that if they were

shot down they would do everything in their power to rescue them.

OPERATION MAGIC FIRE

Operation Magic Fire happened in 1977 and involved the rescue of

84 passengers and five-flight crew members held hostage aboard

a Boeing 737 by four members of the Palestinian terrorist organization

known as Commando Martyr Halime. It was a four day hijacking ordeal

that ended in seven minutes thanks to Germany’s GSG 9 Commandos

who rescued the hostages, killed three of the terrorists, and

captured the fourth.

OPERATION JACQUE

On July 2, 2008, Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt

and several other captives were rescued from the Marxist-Leninist

guerrilla organization FARC. The operation was executed so

smoothly that not a single shot was fired during the rescue.

OPERATION ENTEBBE

Considered as the gold standard of hostage rescue missions,

Operation Entebbe started on June 27, 1976, when an Air France flight

was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. On July 4, 1976, the assault

team led by the elite Special Forces Sayeret Matkal carried out the

daring rescue mission that saved 256 hostages and killed all eight hijackers.

OPERATION NIMROD

In 1980, some Arab separatists who claimed to be the Democratic

Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan captured

the Iranian Embassy in London, holding at least 22 Iranian hostages.

In a rescue attempt the British Special Air Services stormed the

building firing shots. Some of the hostages were killed in the

process but the majority of them were saved.

OPERATION ISOTOPE

On May 8, 1972, four Palestinians from the terrorist organization

Black September hijacked a Belgian flight to demand for the

release of 315 Palestinian prisoners. In response, Israeli defence

minister Moshe Dayan ordered a rescue mission wherein 16

commandos disguised themselves as technicians, infiltrated the

plane and killed two hijackers while capturing the other two.

All hostages were saved, except for one.