The Galei Tzahal technician who hung from a helicopter skid to save a life
Tomer Aizner, a Galei Tzahal technician, boarded the station's traffic helicopter for a routine mission. Hours later, he was hanging in the air, struggling to save a 100 kg stranger in a dramatic rescue kept secret for years. The 'Digging Journalism' podcast revisits this event from 35 years ago.
It was supposed to be another ordinary morning in late summer 1991. Tomer Aizner, a technician at Galei Tzahal, set out on a familiar mission: to board the station's traffic helicopter and cover congestion from the air. With his recording equipment in hand, Aizner expected a standard workday, devoid of surprises.
However, around 12:30 PM, the calm was shattered. A message came over the radio: a 'Cessna' light aircraft had crashed into the sea near Sde Dov airport. The pilot, realizing his helicopter was the closest asset, was asked to deviate from his course to assist in the rescue.
'Who knows how to swim?'
In those fateful moments, a quick decision was required. The pilot needed an extra pair of hands. He turned to the broadcaster and the technician sitting behind him and asked: 'Who knows how to swim?' Aizner answered in the affirmative.
After dropping off the broadcaster, Aizner—a radio technician, not a rescue professional—went back up with the pilot. They headed into the open sea for a mission none of them had ever practiced. Upon arrival, they saw survivors struggling in the waves. The pilot decided not to wait for organized rescue forces. He asked Aizner to do something not in any job description: hang from the helicopter's skids and descend as close as possible to the water. The helicopter hovered just two meters above the waves, where Amnon, a man weighing over 100 kg, was fighting for his life.
Aizner, hanging on the wet skid, grabbed Amnon's hands and tried to pull him up. The first attempt failed due to the weight and turbulent water. But the pilot made a quick U-turn. In the second attempt, Aizner acted with amazing resourcefulness: he gripped Amnon's hands, wrapped them around the skid, and used his own body weight to press the survivor firmly against the metal. Once Amnon was secured, Aizner signaled the pilot to fly at speed toward the shore, where a medical team was waiting.
A secret kept for years
Upon returning to the Galei Tzahal station, they didn't want to tell anyone about the drama. They mentioned it only dryly and continued their routine. The heroism simply disappeared into the week's noise. The story remained buried until a moving letter arrived at the station years later from Amnon, the survivor whose life was saved by the technician.
Only then did the staff learn what had truly happened above the waves. The circle was closed at a ceremony where the then-commander of Galei Tzahal, Efraim Lapid, awarded Tomer Aizner a certificate of appreciation for his exemplary courage. The story of the technician who went out to report on traffic and ended up hanging above the sea remains proof that sometimes, the greatest heroes are right behind the scenes.
