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Surviving Officer in IDF Helicopter Crash Tried to Pull Pilots Out When Fire Struck

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Surviving officer says he tried several times to pull the pilots out.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

The IDF believes that the crash of a navy helicopter off the coast of Haifa which killed two servicemen and injured a third was the result of a malfunction which caused a fire in an engine.

Israel Air Force chief of operations Brig.-Gen. Amir Lazar said that despite the fire causing a power failure, the pilots were able to lower the AS565 Panther helicopter to an altitude to carry out an emergency landing at sea. However the power failure left the pilots unable to make a distress call.

The AS565 Panther is a 25-year-old aircraft used for a variety of maritime missions such as reconnaissance, search and rescue operations and anti-submarine warfare. The IAF refers to the helicopter as the “Atalef,” or bat.

Two Israel Air Force (IAF) officers were killed on Monday evening when an IDF Atalef-type helicopter crashed off the shores of the city of Haifa during a training flight.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military identified the two crew members killed in the crash as 38-year-old Lt.-Col. Erez Sahiyani of Ramat David, and 27-year-old Major Chen Fogel from Haifa.

Sahiyani served as deputy commander of the Ramat David air force base southeast of Haifa. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Fogel served as a helicopter pilot and deputy commander of the 193rd Squadron (‘Defenders of the West’), and was posthumously promoted from the rank of captain to major.

Meanwhile, the surviving officer, Capt. Ron Berman, sent a condolence video to the families of Lt. Col. Erez Sachyani and Maj. Chen Fogel. Berman’s identity was released for publication on Tuesday night.

Filmed in his hospital bed at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus, Berman said he tried several times to pull Sachyani and Fogel out of the cockpit.

“The crash happened around 8:50 p.m., and I was able to save myself from the drowning helicopter. After that, following a few attempts to save my friends Sachyani and Fogel, I was rescued by the Police’s naval unit,” Berman said in footage released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Berman also told the Sachyani and Fogel families to “stay strong.”

“This is a very sad night. In the name of Israel’s citizens, I ask to send deep, heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the helicopter accident and a speedy recovery to the wounded naval officer,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter Monday night.

“The naval officers who were killed in the accident were some of the best of our boys. The people of Israel won’t forget their contribution, day and night, to the security of the state. May their memory be blessed.”

Berman is being treated for a broken vertebra and mild hypothermia and is in moderate condition.

             (Sources: WorldisraelNews.com and www.ArutzSheva.com)

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