Operation Penicillin

MiG-21 aircraft hijacked to Israel by Iraqi pilot Munir Redfa

Operation Penicillin ^[1] , also Operation Diamond ( Hebrew מִבְצָע יַהֲלוֹם [ ^2] , Operation Diamond Diamond ^{[Comm. 1]} ) or Blue Bird ( Hebrew הציפור הכחולה [ ^{2 ]} ) - the Mossad operation carried out in August 1966 to hijack a Soviet MiG-21 fighter, which was then the latest and top-secret model. It is considered a major success and an important event in the history of "Mossad" ^[2] .

In April 1965, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, General Ezer Weizman, turned to Mossad chief Meir Amit with a request to consider the possibility of hijacking the latest MiG-21 aircraft at that time. The impending war was not far off.

Since 1961, Moscow began supplying the MiG-21 to Arab countries. By 1963, fighters of this type were part of the air forces of Syria, Egypt and Iraq . Israel has already made repeated attempts to acquire the latest car, but they did not lead to the desired result.

Analysts in Mossad concluded that a bet should be placed on a non-Muslim pilot.

Initially, attempts were made to recruit Egyptian pilots, but they did not bring success: one pilot passed the agent ^[3] , the other flew, but on a training aircraft, and not on the MiG-21 ^[4] . After that, Iraqi Jew Joseph Maksur (according to other sources - Joseph Shamash), a servant in the family of Assyrian Redf’s Christians, got in touch with the Israeli embassy in Paris through a third party. One of the members of this family, thirty-two-year-old Munir Redfa , was one of the best pilots in the Iraqi Air Force and piloted the MiG-21. Since the persecution of Christians began in Iraq at that time, the Redf family sought to leave the country, and this apparently served as the main motive for Munir. He was offered 500 thousand British pounds (more than a million dollars) and Israeli citizenship; Redfa demanded the removal of his entire family from Iraq. The condition has been accepted. There is a romantic version that some beautiful American played a decisive role in the recruitment of Redf; however, this version is disputed. Shortly before the escape, Redf left for Europe, and from Rome he was secretly delivered to Israel, where he discussed all the details of the operation. In a correspondence between Redf and Mossad, the plane passed under the code name "diamond", hence the name of the operation.

The problem with the removal of all relatives was resolved in parallel: at first the uncle of the pilot moved to Switzerland , and 250,000 pounds were transferred there to the bank account. Then, a wife with two sons of the pilot crossed over to Tehran to Israel - on the day of the flight, under the pretext of summer heat, to the mountains of Kurdistan , they were taken by partisans Mustafa Barzani to rebel-controlled territory and from there transported by helicopter to Iran .

On August 15 (according to other sources, August 16 ^[2] ) 1966, Munir Redfa flew from Iraq to Israel on a MiG-21 aircraft. For the hijacking, he received 500,000 British pounds. Then he worked as a pilot at an oil airline, in 1969 he moved to one of the countries of Western Europe, where he died in 1998 .

The plane underwent flight tests in Israel, and then was transported to the United States for further research. Subsequently, the plane was returned to Israel, where it is now on display at the Israel Air Force Museum (pictured above). Familiarity with the flight and tactical characteristics of the aircraft provided Israel with great help during the Six Day War .