Tamar Ariel
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Captain Tamar Ariel (1988/1989–2014) was an Israeli Air Force navigator, Israel's first female Orthodox pilot.[1][2] She died in a Himalayan blizzard in 2014, aged 25.[3]
Biography
Tamar Ariel was from Masu'ot Yitzhak, a cooperative farming community. Her father was born on the Moshav and her mother immigrated from Puerto Rico. Tamar was the third of six children.[3]
Ariel graduated the Israel Air Force (IAF) flight school in December 2012. During her training she was forced to eject from her Beechcraft T-6 Texan II causing her to rocket skyward, breaking a vertebra in her back. Ariel spent months in an elastic body cast then went on to complete her training. After graduation, she flew the F-16D. During Operation Protective Edge, according to one of her commanders, she flew the most combat missions in her squadron.[3]
Ariel died, aged 25, in a snow storm that hit the high mountain passes on a vacation to the Himalayas in 2014.[3]
References
- ^ Ettinger, Yair (22 October 2016). "Israeli Navigator Killed in Nepal Was a Role Model to Young Orthodox Women". Retrieved 11 December 2016 – via Haaretz.
- ^ "Remembering Tamar Ariel: Israel's First Religious Female Pilot". Retrieved 11 December 2016.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d "Killed in the snows of Nepal, IAF's first female religious pilot is laid to rest". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2016-12-08.