El Al Flight 432 attack

A greater disaster was averted when Mordechai Rahamim, an undercover Israeli security agent stationed on the plane, opened fire at the attackers and killed the terrorist leader.

Leaping out of a vehicle parked near a hangar, two terrorists opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles,[3][4] and another two tossed incendiary grenades as well as dynamite that failed to explode[citation needed].

The plane's security guard Mordechai Rahamim, a twenty two-year old former soldier in the Israeli elite special forces unit Sayeret Matkal,[5] ran to the cockpit and fired at the attackers from the window with his Beretta .22 pistol,[3][4] and then jumped out of the plane through the rear emergency slide door and continued the shootout with the attackers.

During the shootout, Rahamim killed the squad leader[citation needed], and the battle eventually ended when the Swiss security forces arrived at the scene.

[citation needed] On 27 November 1969, the trial of Rahamim and the three terrorists, Mohamed Abu Al-Haija, Ibrahim Tawfik Youssef and Amina Dahbour, began in Winterthur, Switzerland.

[citation needed] During the trial, Israel was forced to admit for the first time that security personnel accompany Israeli flights, to prevent hijackings and terrorism from happening in the air.