(1 x 1-hour)
Bound from Tel Aviv to Paris, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked on June 27, 1976, by a group of Palestinian and German terrorists and flown to Entebbe, Uganda. There were 246 passengers and a dozen crew on board – more than half of them Israeli citizens. After several days, all non-Jewish passengers were released; secretly, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) prepares to mount one of the most complicated – and risky – missions ever conceived to rescue the 102 hostages who remained.
Nearly 35 years later, while much has been reported and dramatized about the incredible Entebbe hostage rescue mission, the details and many personal and heroic stories of the operation remained classified. Until recently – even the internal Israeli Defense Forces report on “Operation Thunderbolt” was not completed until 2004. With gripping re-enactments and never before heard first-person accounts with the commandos, pilots, strategists and covert intelligence gatherers, Assault and Rescue: Operation Thunderball goes inside the situation rooms, assault staging areas and deadly firefights that made the seemingly impossible happen.
Original broadcaster: Discovery Channel Canada
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