Operation Solomon | Record Breaking Airlift
To understand Operation Solomon, you need to understand the context and environment where it was taking place. In 1991, the sitting Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was close to being toppled by Eritrean and Tigrayan rebels, bringing the nation’s government to the brink of collapse and causing a massive famine. Jewish organizations the world around were concerned about the safety of the large Ethiopian Jewish diaspora (known as “Beta Israel”), who were likely to be early victims of violence if full scale conflict were to break out. The Israeli government and Americans alike felt that it was important to evacuate as many Jews as were willing as soon as possible.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) began to plot an evacuation effort in late 1990, which was dubbed Operation Solomon. The United States soon began appraised of the situation, and offered logistical and diplomatic support. While the Israeli government was all in on the operation, some of the conservative Jews in Israel were a little more wary about bringing in thousands of newcomers and required convincing.
Before the Israelis could just send planes into Ethiopia and fill up with people, they had to get the approval of the sitting (albeit unstable) Ethiopian government without tipping off the rebels. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had experience with airlifts out of Ethiopia - it was the third such operation, but this was by far the biggest and taking place at a time where the government was the most unstable. US President George H. W. Bush sent a letter to the Ethiopian president, asking for him to allow the evacuations to take place. The Ethiopians agreed only after the Israelis paid a sum of $35 million USD for safe passage.
US intelligence agencies passed along information they had as to the whereabouts of Jews in Ethiopia. It was decided that the airlifts would take off and land at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, for simplicity and to best conceal the operation. Jewish Ethiopians made their way to the capital city by foot, bus, and horse by the thousands. They were frequent targets of thieves and some were even murdered along the way.
They couldn’t keep the operation secret once it started, so the IDF decided the best course of action was to do it as quickly as possible. Israeli Air Force C130s and El Al 747s and 707s were stripped of their seats and overhead bins as to accommodate as many people as possible. 35 planes in total were used. They took off from Israel on May 24th, 1991. As an interesting aside, May 24th was a Friday, which is the beginning of the Jewish holiday Shabbat. Usually, this means that transportation isn’t permissible for observant Jews, except in the case of emergencies. This meant that El Al wasn’t running any commercial flights that day, freeing up aircraft.
The passengers were hastily loaded into the aircraft on the ground in Addis Ababa, then the planes took off back for Tel Aviv. Everything was meticulously planned, and the evacuees were staged at the Israeli embassy the night before. The first plane touched down at 10:00 AM and was out before noon. Most refugees didn’t bring any baggage with them, and because of the famine, most were severely underweight, so weight and balance didn’t present much of an issue for the pilots.
When the planes landed in Tel Aviv, they were met with crowds of thousands of Israelis, as well as Prime Minister Shamir. Ambulances and medics were present to treat the frail and ill passengers, many of whom were afflicted with diseases relating to their famine and lack of medical care.
The operation was, by all measures, a resounding success. Over 36 hours, more than 14,300 Ethiopian Jews were covertly airlifted from Addis Ababa to Israel. This is the largest such operation to date. During Operation Solomon, 8 babies were born and no lives lost (once everyone was in Addis Ababa).
One of the El Al 747-200s, 4X-AXF, carried an astounding 1,088 (though the reported numbers vary from 1,078 to 1,122) Ethiopian Jews out of Addis Ababa during Operation Solomon. Incredibly, not one but two babies were born in flight. Yes, that’s right - 2 babies were born on the four hour flight.
The Jewish Agency for Israel
Aviation File
Jewish Virtual Library
The Jewish Museum London
Simple Flying
The Ohio State University
The New York Times
Guinness World Records