![]() ![]() The airport in Tel Aviv was getting bombed all the time. Navigation was by dead reckoning and eyesight. “It was pretty much seat-of-the-pants flying in those days. “I had no idea what I was getting into, absolutely none,” remembered Warren, who retired in 1979 as Alaska’s chief pilot and vice president of flight operations. We were the wings of eagles.”įor both Marian and Warren, the assignment came on the heels of flying the airline’s other great adventure of the late 1940s: the Berlin Airlift. ![]() She was giving me a blessing for getting them home. “A little old lady came up to me and took the hem of my jacket and kissed it. “One of the things that really got to me was when we were unloading a plane at Tel Aviv,” said Marian, who assisted Israeli nurses on a number of flights. But in the end, despite being shot at and even bombed upon, the mission was accomplished–and without a single loss of life. It took a whole lot of resourcefulness the better part of 1949 to do it. And the desert sand wreaked havoc on engines. Flight and maintenance crews had to be positioned through the Middle East. The logistics of it all made the task daunting. Warren Metzger, a DC-4 captain, and Marian, a flight attendant, were part of what turned out to be one of the greatest feats in Alaska Airlines’ 67-year history: airlifting thousands of Yemenite Jews to the newly created nation of Israel. When Alaska Airlines sent them on “Operation Magic Carpet” 50 years ago, Warren and Marian Metzger didn’t realize they were embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. An interactive map also illustrates for visitors where the planes traveled while transporting the refugees. Metzger and video footage of pilots sharing their airlift experiences. The exhibit provides a detailed look of the history of Operation Magic Carpet through historic artifacts, such as the jacket worn by Capt. There were no deaths during the flights though one plane was forced to make a crash-landing after the loss of an engine. Fuel was difficult to obtain, flight and maintenance crews had to be positioned throughout the Middle East and sandstorms wreaked havoc on the plane engines. The approximately 430 flights Alaska Airlines made were treacherous. along with many others airlifted 50,000 Jews to Tel Aviv. ![]() Throughout the next two years Captains Sam Silver, Warren Metzger, navigator Elgen Long and Chief Pilot Robert McGuire Jr. Wooten, he was moved after seeing the terrible conditions under which the Yemenite Jews lived in the Aden ghetto created by the British. ![]() When the American Joint Distribution Committee contacted Alaska President James A. The Yemenite Jews in Aden were living under extremely harsh conditions in the years prior to and immediately following the birth of the State of Israel.Īt the time, Alaska Airlines was the largest non-scheduled carrier in the world. “We decided to have the ‘On the Wings of Eagles’ exhibit at the museum because of the unique melding of energies between disparate groups (Alaska Airlines, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the State of Israel and the American government) to ensure the rescue of virtually an entire population from devastating circumstances,” says Leslie Fried, the museum’s curator. The Alaska Jewish Museum’s first featured exhibit, “On the Wings of Eagles: Alaska’s Contribution to Operation Magic Carpet,” tells the story of a young Alaska Airlines and its employees’ heroic efforts to avert a humanitarian crisis during a trying time in world history. More than 60 years later a new museum in the state of Alaska pays tribute to this piece of Alaska Airlines history. Known as Operation Magic Carpet, Alaska Airlines employees flew in perilous conditions while helping to fulfill a Biblical prophecy that said the Yemenite Jews would return to their homeland “on the wings of eagles.” From the end of 1948 to the fall of 1950, Alaska Airlines took part in the airlift of 50,000 Jews from Yemen to the newly created nation of Israel. ![]()
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