Astronaut Ilan Ramon’s Son Dies in IAF Crash

ISRAEL — Tragedy struck the family of late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon again Sunday, when his son Capt. Asaf Ramon was killed in a crash while flying an Israel Air Force F16-A.

Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut was one of seven crew members killed when the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.

Asaf Ramon’s aircraft crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. The Israel Defense Forces carried out an aerial and terrestrial search of the area for some 90 minutes before locating the crash site.

IAF Blackhawk (“Yanshuf”) helicopters carrying soldiers from 669, the Air Force’s elite search and rescue unit, were the first to locate the plane, and they retrieved the pilot’s body.

Asaf excelled in the IAF’s grueling training course for pilots. In June he received a presidential honor and was given his pilot’s wings by President Shimon Peres. He then joined the squadron in which the course’s advanced training program is carried out.

The young pilot escaped another plane crash only half a year ago during a routine training flight.

The Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel’s F-16 squadrons until further notice, the military said in a statement.

Ilan Ramon himself was a fighter pilot in the IAF, and the youngest to take part in Israel’s 1981 air strike on Iraq’s unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor. He was also the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors.

People in Israel had tracked Ramon’s journey into space as a welcome distraction from the violence of the second intifada; they responded to his death with shock and grief.

Asaf Ramon was 15 when his father died; shortly afterward, he promised on a number of occasions that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and serve as a pilot and possibly even as an astronaut in the future. he is survived by his mother, and his two brothers and sister.

Shortly before receiving his wings, Ramon told the IAF journal that, “It was important to me to mention my father and tell his stories, because I am proud of him and proud to be his son. But I also want people to know me as Asaf and not just as the son of the astronaut Ilan Ramon.”