Michel Bacos

Michel Bacos grew up in Port Said, Egypt where his father worked as a lawyer. At the age of seventeen, he joined the Forces Françaises Libres of General de Gaulle and, in 1943, joined the Force Navales Françaises Libres.

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  Michel Bacos FNFL
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  Michel Bacos Corpus Christi Texas

He was sent to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas where he became a naval aviation pilot. In the 1950s, he joined Air France as a pilot. This is where he met his wife, Rosemarie, a German, who was then a stewardess.[9]

On 27 June 1976, Bacos was piloting an Airbus A300 flight from Athens to Paris, originating in Tel Aviv. Minutes into the flight, Bacos heard screams and quickly realized that the plane was being hijacked.[3][5][10] Bacos was forced at gunpoint to re-route the plane.[11] He recalled later: "The terrorist had his gun pointed continuously at my head and occasionally he would poke my neck not to look at him. We could only obey the orders of the terrorists."[3] Bacos was forced to turn the plane south to Benghazi, Libya, for refueling,[12] and then to fly in a south-eastern direction. He landed the jet at Entebbe, Uganda, with only 20 minutes' fuel left.[5][10]

The terrorists freed the 148 non-Jewish passengers, and offered to release Bacos and his crew. They felt duty-bound to remain on the plane, and refused to leave. They stayed behind with the Jewish hostages.[3][12] The captives were freed in an Israeli commando raid known as Operation Entebbe, and Bacos was dazed in the attack.[13][14] After the hijacking, Bacos took a two-week holiday and requested that his first flight back be to Israel.[15]

In 1976, Bacos was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France, by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.[6] The Israeli government awarded Bacos and his crew medals for heroism, for refusing to leave the Jewish passengers behind.[8] In June 2008, Bacos was awarded the B'nai B'rith International "Ménoras d'Or" (Golden Menorah) in Cannes, France.[16]

Bacos retired from Air France in 1982,[17] and resided in Nice, France with his wife. They had seven grandchildren.[2] In 2016, the American Jewish Congress awarded Bacos the organization's Moral Courage Award. Bacos lived in Nice at the time of his death on 26 March 2019.[18][19] The Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvah, was played at his funeral.[20] Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi recognized Bacos, saying: "Michel, bravely refusing to give in to anti-Semitism and barbarism, did honor to France. The love of France and the defense of liberties have marked his destiny."[21]

Bacos played himself in the 2000 documentary film Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe.[22] He is also depicted in:

• Mivtsa Yonatan (1977; played by Henri Czarniak)[23]
• Raid on Entebbe (1977; played by Eddie Constantine)[24]
• 7 Days in Entebbe (2018; played by Brontis Jodorowsky)[25]