Jonathan Etkes

Jonathan Etkes was born in 1935 in Kiryat Motzkin

Etkes was born in Kiryat Motzkin to Hana and Yaakov Etkes, and he was the first child born there. In 1937 his family moved to Haifa, where he attended a high school in the Technion school system.

After joining the IDF he volunteered for flight school and finished as a fighter pilot at the end of 1954. On 2 November 1956, during Operation Kadesh, his Mustang was hit by Egyptian anti-aircraft fire at Ras Nasrani and he made a forced landing with a badly wounded leg. He was captured, taken to Cairo and held for about 3 months, during which he suffered abuse, hunger and electric shocks.

He returned to Israel on 27 January 1957 in a prisoner exchange with Egypt. He kept flying in the Air Force until Operation Peace for Galilee and then became an El Al captain on the Boeing 747. In December 1977 he commanded El Al Flight 443, the airline's first flight to Cairo, carrying the Israeli delegation to the Cairo Conference.

In 1982 he visited the site where his plane had landed in Sinai with his family. He was married to Mira, lived in Tel Aviv and had 3 children. He died on 14 May 2024 and was buried in Yarkon Cemetery.