Tamar Ariel ( he, תמר אריאל; September 12, 1989 – October 14, 2014) was an

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

navigator, Israel's first female Orthodox pilot. She died in a Himalayan blizzard in 2014, aged 25.

Biography

Tamar Ariel was from Masu'ot Yitzhak, a cooperative farming community. Her father was born on the

Moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 ...

and her mother immigrated from Puerto Rico. Tamar was the third of six children. Ariel graduated the Israel Air Force (IAF) flight school in December 2012. During her training she was forced to eject from her

Beechcraft T-6 Texan II The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (Textron Aviation since 2014). A trainer aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the United States Air Force's Cessna T- ...

causing her to rocket skyward, breaking a vertebra in her back. Ariel spent months in an elastic body cast then went on to complete her training. After graduation, she flew the

F-16D The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...

. During

Operation Protective Edge The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territories, Pale ...

, according to one of her commanders, she flew the most combat missions in her squadron. Ariel died, aged 25, in a snow storm that hit the high mountain passes on a vacation to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariel, Tamar 1989 births 2014 deaths Israeli people of Argentine-Jewish descent Israeli Air Force personnel Israeli women aviators Deaths in avalanches