A
tribute to Captain Al-Masri and his bird SN 2217 (As published by Tom Cooper,
courtesy of AICG.org)
In
1974, and in Captain Al-Masry’s words: "At the time, MiG-23 was the most
modern plane in our arsenal, but we had only eight of the type. On that day I
was flying on a lone mission when I saw seven to eight enemy Phantoms ahead of
me - in one formation. I never saw eight enemy planes in one formation before
and never encountered so many Israelis at once before. I tried to contact the
ground command by radio, but there was very heavy jamming. I tried the secondary
frequency, but it was also jammed. So I switched to the open frequency and sent
a help request explaining the whole situation. Then I engaged the enemy. I did
not have really much of a choice: they would have attacked me anyway, so I
engaged them first."
Flying at low level, he accelerated to offset from the enemy formation, turned
as tightly as his plane permitted and rolled right behind the Israeli formation:
"I fired three missiles, two of which hit two enemy planes and I watched
them go down in flames."
The rest of the Israeli formation spread immediately into different directions,
and the Syrian turned behind the closest one trying to engage with guns. The
Phantom in front of him executed a break to the left, but, while maneuvering
behind the target, Al-Masry’s plane shuddered from a direct hit:
"While I was maneuvering, trying to get a lock on one of the remaining
Phantoms, I was hit by a missile. It was a terrible situation: the plane was on
fire and I did not know what to do. I said my last prayers and suddenly the
plane broke in two pieces."
Capt. al-Masry couldn’t maneuver any more when another missile struck his MiG
(subsequent analysis of his engagement concluded that his MiG-23MS was shot down
by two SA-6s fired from a Syrian SAM-site nearby) causing it to break into two
large sections and plunge to the ground. Until today, he can not clearly
remember how he survived this mission:
"I fell to the ground together with the crashing aircraft, but was rescued
immediately. I was hurt very bad on the shoulder and chest, and awakened from
coma only one month later."
For his success in that battle, and downing of two F-4E Phantoms (until today,
the IDF/AF confirmed the loss of only one Phantom on that day; the pilot, Capt.
Yigal Stavi, was killed; WSO, Benny Kiriyati, captured by the Syrians; another
Phantom seems to have been lost as well, but the crew was recovered), Al-Masry
was subsequently promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and decorated with the
"Hero of the Republic“ Medal by General Mustafa Tlas. However, he was
never to fly again: his injuries precluded him from passing rigorous tests when
he tried to qualify several years later.
Continuing
my “Syrian Air Force” build, here is my Mig-27 model.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
kit went together very well with a few small gaps and was built OOB except
for the ejection seat. For painting, I used Model Master Acrylic Duck Egg
Blue 4748, Model Master Acrylic Dark Green 4726 and Model Master Dark Tan
4709. This was followed by a coat of Future then I used Hi Decal HD72015
decals coated with MicroSol, then sealed with Model Master Acrylic Flat
Clear coat.
Hope
you enjoyed this and stay tuned for more to come!!
Majd Abbar
Click on
images below to see larger images
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