Avraham Lanir
| Avi Lanir | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 25, 1940 Herzliya, Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | 16 October 1973 Alep, Syria |
| Buried | Mount Herzl, Israel |
| Allegiance |
 Israel
|
| Service/branch | Israeli Air Force |
| Years of service | 1959-1973 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Commands held | 101 Squadron (Israel) |
| Awards | Medal of Courage |
Avraham "Avi" Lanir (January 25, 1940 – October 1973) was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Israel Air Force. He was the highest ranking Israeli fighter pilot to fall into enemy hands. He was tortured to death by his Syrian captors.
Avraham Lankin (later Lanir) was born in 1940 in Herzliya. His parents Yaacov and Malka were active members in the British Mandate era militant group Etzel. His father went on to become a senior member of the Shin Bet. His uncle, Eliyahu Lankin, was the commander of the weapons ship Altelena. Lanir studied at several schools, with the family following his father's employment relocations throughout Israel. In 1954, the family moved to Washington, D.C. in the framework of Lanir’s fathers work in the service of the state of Israel. When Avi Lanir was 17, he returned to Israel with his family and for the year which remained before his enlistment he studied electronics at the Israeli Air Force’s technical academy. In August 1962, Lanir married Michal Barzilai. The couple had two children, Noam and Nurit.
Lanir enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 1959, training to become a fighter pilot. He flew the Dassault Mirage III with 117 Squadron and on April 6, 1967, scored his first aerial kill in a major skirmish along the Syrian border which ended with the downing of six Syrian jets. Lanir, flying Mirage 60, downed a SAF MiG-21 with cannon fire after closing in to a distance of 200 meters. The MiG exploded and Lanir flew right through the fireball, covering his aircraft with soot. Initially blinded, enough soot was eventually blown off his canopy to afford Lanir a safe landing at Ramat David. The scorched aircraft earned the nickname "Black Mirage", and Lanir flew it once again during Operation Focus on June 5, 1967, when he participated in a strike against the Egyptian air base at Fayid. The aircraft was lost 2 days later over Iraq.
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