Returning to the Ma'agan Disaster: Paratroopers Who Survived the War Perished at a Memorial Ceremony

On July 29, 1954, thousands of guests gathered at Kibbutz Ma'agan on the shores of the Sea of Galilee for a ceremony to dedicate a monument in memory of paratrooper Peretz Goldstein and to mark the heroism of the Yishuv paratroopers. During the ceremony, a light aircraft crashed into the crowd. 17 people were killed and 25 were injured in one of the worst aviation disasters in the country's history. The podcast 'Itonut Hoferet' ('Digging Journalism') returns to the Ma'agan disaster, to the chain of decisions that led to the crash, and to the questions that remained open after it.

The state rally was intended to commemorate the Yishuv paratroopers, volunteers who went to Europe during World War II on a mission intended to assist Jews under Nazi occupation. The ceremony was held simultaneously with the laying of the cornerstone for the 'Yad Vashem' institution in Jerusalem, and therefore the President of the State cancelled his participation at the last moment. Instead, a greeting letter was sent.

The event organizers approached the IDF with a request to conduct a flyover, but their request was denied. Afterwards, they accepted the 'Aero Club of Israel's' offer to hold a civilian demonstration flyover, during which a letter presented as the President's greeting was to be dropped to the crowd. One of the planes was flown by Uri Galin. Galin, a native of Moshav Ein Ganim and a former Palmach fighter, volunteered for the first IDF pilot course but was reassigned to the role of aerial gunner. After his discharge, he studied flying in a civilian framework and was later drafted into the reserves as a flight instructor, even though he did not complete a military pilot course.

Alongside his aviation pursuits, Galin was a prominent athlete and Israel's record holder in discus throwing. In 1952, he represented Israel at the Helsinki Olympics. On the day of the disaster, Galin flew a light Piper Cub aircraft. When he arrived over the crowd, he tried to drop the letter, but it got caught in the plane's left wheel. In an attempt to release it, Galin handed the controls to Avshalom Strod, a photographer and secretary of the Aero Club who sat behind him and had no flight experience. Galin moved his upper body out of the cockpit and managed to release the letter. However, during this time, the plane lost altitude, and control was lost.

It passed at a low altitude over the participants, hit the commander of the honor guard, Lieutenant Simcha Levy, and killed him. Afterward, it crashed into the crowd, with the engine and propeller continuing to operate. The plane passed over the first three rows, where Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, his wife, ministers, and senior officers who miraculously survived were sitting, and crashed into the rows behind them.

Among the 17 dead were four of the Yishuv paratroopers: Dov Harari, Aryeh Orni-Fichman, Yehuda Achishar, and Shalom Finzi. The four survived their missions in Europe during World War II, but were killed at a ceremony intended to commemorate their comrades. Also killed in the disaster were Ofra and Daniel Sireni, the daughter-in-law and son of paratrooper Enzo Sireni, who was captured by the Germans and murdered at the Dachau concentration camp.

After the disaster, the investigative committee determined that Galin acted recklessly, and he was put on trial for causing death by negligence. However, following the scarcity of evidence and the judge's recommendation, the Attorney General ordered the trial to be cancelled. Years later, claims were published in journalistic investigations that Aero Club personnel threatened witnesses to prevent his conviction. After the disaster, Galin traveled to the United States, completed a doctorate, and became a professor of anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He passed away in 2021.