Tamar Ariel

Tamar Ariel (Hebrew: תמר אריאל; September 12, 1989 – October 14, 2014) was an Israeli Air Force navigator, Israel's first female Orthodox pilot.^[1][2] She died in a Himalayan blizzard in 2014, aged 25.^[3]

Tamar Ariel, 2012

Biography

Tamar Ariel was from Masu'ot Yitzhak, a cooperative farming community. Her father was born on the Moshav and her mother immigrated from Puerto Rico. Tamar was the third of six children.^[3]

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 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. During Operation Protective Edge, according to one of her commanders, she flew the most combat missions in her squadron.^[3]

Ariel died, aged 25, in a snow storm that hit the high mountain passes on a vacation to the Himalayas in 2014.^[3]