Anatoly Cohn at Apco Aviation < href="mailto:">>
writes:

Following Wednesday's (23/11/05) news in the Israeli and
international media regarding an illegal crossing of the Israeli/Lebanese
border
by Adam Wechsler flying APCO's paraglider, I would like to shed some light
on
the incident and put it into a realistic perspective.



Adam Wechsler is our employee and also one of the best paragliding pilots in
Israel. On Wednesday November 23rd, Adam and his mate Ittai Tackersman went
to
the most Northernly flying site in Israel in the Upper Galilee, situated on
a
mountain near Kibbutz Manara. It was a typical high pressure stable day,
usually
bringing strong easterly winds (the site faces East). The wind was strong,
but
the guys decided to wait as the typical pattern is for the Eastern wind to
die
down during the day.



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Since the site is near the border and in light of Israeli/Lebanese border
tension (Hizballah) - the usual procedure is to call the Army in the region,
letting them know that you intend flying in that area so they won't take you
for
a terrorist and Adam did so. Manara site is one of the highest in Israel and
popular among local paragliding pilots, despite being located in the far
North.



The guys waited in the cafeteria until the afternoon for the wind to die
out. By
2pm. They decided that the wind had dropped sufficiently allowing for flight
(both are very experienced pilots), so Adam took off. The wind picked up
again
and Adam found himself blown into Lebanon (the border is only a few hundred
meters behind take off site).



Full acceleration, big ears and B Stall were not enough to land on the
Israeli
side. So in less than a minute from take-off Adam found himself on Lebanese
soil
a few dozen meters behind the fence. He realized that he was in Lebanon with
bleak prospects and quickly stuffed the wing into the bag and phoned the
Israeli
side asking for help.



He saw a Hizballah watchtower a few hundred meters away and saw 3 or 4 armed
Hizballah members jump into a jeep, driving in his direction while opening
fire.
Adam had to hide quickly behind a bush, while continuing talking on the
phone,
directing the Israeli soldiers to his location.



The arrival of an Israeli army jeep initiated the shooting incident, but
eventually scared off Hizballah. The border gate was quickly opened and Adam
instructed to run for cover to the Israeli side, luckily bringing with him
next
year's APCO prototype!



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Israeli Army jeeps at the site of the incident



It took a short while before ceasefire, then Adam was handed over by the
Army to
the Israeli Police, just to be arrested! He spent the night in detention in
a
police cell and was brought before a judge the next morning. APCO had to
hire a
lawyer to convince the judge to let him go free. So today Adam is already
back
at work and we are all trying to put the incident behind us and concentrate
on
the real tasks at hand.



Now the authorities are juggling the hot potato of responsibility in the
search
for who to blame and who screwed up, leading to an international border
incident, involving shooting (luckily with no casualties). So you can
imagine
that the Civil Aviation Authority and the Paragliding Association are now
sweating hard trying to find a scapegoat to prosecute.



Hizballah TV released a statement praising the heroic Hizballah fighters who
bravely resisted the Israeli air attack !! (Poor Adam - he never knew that
he is
a one man A-team, armed only with a ballast bag!!)



If more pictures/information required, please let us know.

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