JERUSALEM — Israel Air Force pilot Capt. Assaf Ramon was laid to rest next to his father, Ilan Ramon, on Monday, a day after he was killed in a training accident while flying an IAF jet.
Shimon Peres congratulates Assaf Ramon when the young man received his pilot’s wings. [Israel Sun photo]
The funeral at Kibbutz Nahalal was closed to the media, as requested by Ramon’s mother, Rona.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Chief Gabi Ashkenazi and other dignitaries were in attendance.
Netanyahu postponed a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, in order to attend the funeral.
Ramon, 21, died when the F-16A Falcon jet he was flying crashed during a routine training flight near the southern Hebron Hills. His father, Israel’s first astronaut, perished with the other six astronauts on board the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. Like his son, Ilan Ramon was an F-16 pilot.
Netanyahu said Monday that the fatal crash that took Assaf Ramon’s life was a “double loss,” almost on the level of “a biblical tragedy.”
“A father and son followed their hearts and soared to the heavens in chariots of steel, crashing to the Earth in chariots of fire,” Netanyahu said.
On hearing the news of the death of the young pilot Sunday, Netanyahu said in a statement: “Few are the moments when personal pain pierces the national heart with such force. Today, the whole nation is enveloped in endless sorrow for the death of Assaf, who fell from the heavens like his father, Ilan.
“This is a terrible tragedy for Rona and all the Ramon family, and it is a terrible tragedy for the people of Israel.
“I was excited when Ilan, the youngest pilot who blew up the reactor of death in Iraq, took with himself to space a memento from the death camps in the Holocaust,” Netanyahu added.
He was referring to the small pencil drawing titled Moon Landscape, by Peter Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed at Auschwitz, that Ilan Ramon carried with him into space.
Earlier Sunday, Barak described the pilot’s death as heartbreaking.
“This is a painful and sad day,” Barak said. “The heart is breaking, we are all with Rona and the siblings. Nonetheless, we will continue to strengthen ourselves, while also extending our hand and continuing in every way to make peace.”
Peres spoke of Assaf Ramon’s death in similar terms.
“What has befallen us today is more than a tragedy, it is a fracture,” Peres said in a statement.
“I knew both of them: Assaf was a fighter [and] the son of a fighter, a dreamer among dreamers. They are a symbol of everything that is good in the Jewish state. They were the most exceptional of the exceptional.”
The IAF commander, Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, informed the family of their loss. They were later visited by former IAF commanders and senior Israel Defence Forces officers, including the chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.
The chief of staff later issued a statement expressing his sorrow. “I received the bitter announcement of Capt. Assaf Ramon’s passing with teary eyes, as did the commanders and soldiers of the IDF and the whole of Israel,” he said.
“Only three months ago, I stood with excitement, holding Rona on the ceremony grounds, while Assaf received his pilot’s wings from Israel’s president, Mr. Shimon Peres, as he excelled in the course.”
Ashkenazi was referring to the IAF’s gruelling training course for pilots. In June, Assaf Ramon received a presidential honour and was given his pilot’s wings by Peres.