Early on Sunday, October 28, a day before operations were to commence, Israeli intelligence learned that Amer and the entire Egyptian General Staff were soon to depart Damascus for Cairo on board an Ilyushin Il-14.

This presented an opportunity to incapacitate Egypt's high command on the eve of operations and the Israeli Air Force was tasked with shooting the aircraft down.

[1][3][4] Late on 28 October, half an hour after the Ilyushin had reportedly left Damascus, Tsiddon and Brosh departed Ramat-David in Meteor 52.

Heading west over the Mediterranean, Tsiddon was 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Cyprus when the aircraft's radar picked up a target 3 miles (4.8 km) away at 10,500 feet (3,200 m).

Tsiddon closed in on the aircraft, slowed and circled it, counting the windows and attempting to trace the shape of its tail in the pitch-dark night.

Tsiddon slipped behind the Ilyushin and opened fire, but his cannons had been loaded with tracer rounds, whose glow temporarily blinded him from seeing the target.

As only the participants and a few high-ranking officers in the IAF were aware of the mission, the flotilla was assumed to be hostile, and a request was sent to the high command to call in the navy to engage the ships, which was denied.