each, they’d put the name of the military unit to be called up in an emergency

each, they’d put the name of the military unit to be called up in an emergency. We'd been allocated Lod Airport, because our base was just 15 minutes away. Still, as I accompanied the engineer back to the control tower, I tried to work out in my mind whether we could plan, prepare and train quickly enough to mount an operation to free the plane later that night. More than a dozen members of the unit had now arrived, and more were joining us every half-hour or so. I arranged for El Al to give us a hangar and a 707 identical to the Sabena plane. Shai, Danny Yatom and I took two airline technicians with us for a closer look at the Boeing. We studied up on it as quickly as we could, beginning with the cockpit and the front door, which we saw was too high to reach without a large ladder. But making our way back, we realized the wings were low enough to climb on to. When, with the help of Danny, I clambered onto one of them, I managed to get one of the emergency doors to open by banging hard on the top end with my open fist. I asked the technicians whether we could expect the Sabena doors to give way as well. Yes, he said, but he cautioned me that on some airlines, there were passenger seats next to at least one of the two doors above each wing. Walking up into the cabin, I tried to work out how we might attack the hijackers before they were able to harm the passengers, or us. The risks were obvious. But I felt we had to be ready to act. With the rest of the sayeret still making its way to Lod, I put Danny in charge of briefing the new arrivals, familiarizing them with the 707 and preparing for the possibility of an assault operation. I also told him to get hold of a couple of dozen small, 22-caliber, Beretta pistols. I couldn’t see how we’d manage to make our way onto the plane with Uzis. We knew we’d have to get up to speed quickly on using the Berettas. None of us had trained on them. But many of the air marshals on board El Al flights were Sayeret Matkal reservists, and they did use Berettas. I told Danny to check for any sayeret marshals arriving on El Al flights and get them to join us. As | headed back to see Dado, we were nowhere close to a detailed plan on how to confront the hijackers. Nor did we have any orders. The people who would give them — Dado, Dayan and ultimately Prime Minister Meir — were still deciding how to respond. But when I reached the control tower, at about 9:30pm, the order came, if not to mount an operation, at least to make sure the sayeret was ready. “Talk to Talik,” Dado told me. “See what the options are to take over the plane if that’s the decision.” I sat down with Talik and ran through what I’d learned from my brief look at the hijacked plane and the work we’d 117 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_027965