It appears that only one Israeli pilot has ever landed an aircraft on an aircraft carrier. In occurred shortly after the Middle East crisis of 1958 when unrest gripped several Arab countries. The United States landed 6,000 Marines and 8,000 soldiers in Lebanon to help stabilize the local political situation. The initial air support for the “peaceful” U.S. troop landings was provided by carrier-based aircraft from the Sixth Fleet.
In the aftermath of the crisis, the Sixth Fleet continued to operate in the eastern Mediterranean, with carriers conducting around-the-clock operations.
During those problematic days, a strange carrier landing occurred. The United States recently had provided Israel with Sikorsky S-58 helicopters, which were designated HSS-1 in U.S. Navy service and HUS-1 in Marine Corps service. On 28 July 1958, a young pilot named Uri Yarom, one of Israel's first helicopter pilots, took off from an airfield in an S-58 to pick up a seaman whose eye had been injured in an accident on a merchant ship in the eastern Mediterranean.
The S-58 lacked fuel for the round trip, so prior to takeoff Yarom loaded two 53-gallon fuel drums inside the helicopter. The idea was to raise a drum above the helicopter's fuel tank opening in flight using the rescue hoist and let the fuel flow into the tank by gravity. A length of rubber tubing was cut to carry the fuel from the drums to the external fuel tank opening.
"When we tried it on the ground it worked O.K.," recalled Yarom. "But when we tried it [in flight], the wind sucked the remain[ing] fuel from the open tank, and all [of] the cabin was sprayed with fuel mist and we decided to forget the idea."1
Frustrated, and preparing to return to base without having reached the merchant ship, Yarom spotted several S-58s with U.S. markings flying in formation. They were HSS-1 Seabat anti-submarine helicopters. He immediately fell in behind them. When the last U.S. helicopter had landed on the carrier Wasp (CVS-18), Yarom hovered his S-58 until he was signaled to land, apparently his “foreign” markings not being recognized.
Immediately upon landing, his helicopter was surrounded by Marines and he was quickly brought up to the ship's bridge. When asked why he had landed on a U.S. carrier—without permission—Yarom instantly replied, "Sorry, I thought she was one of ours."
The Israeli S-58 was quickly refueled and, given the exact direction and range to the merchant ship, took off to continue the rescue mission. After winching up the injured seaman, the helicopter successfully returned to Israel. The Israeli government subsequently paid the United States for the fuel provided by the Wasp.
Yarom had an earlier, tenuous relationship with carrier aviation. In World War II the Royal Air Force flew Mosquito aircraft—twin-engine, wooden fighter-bombers—from aircraft carriers. After the war some of these hook-fitted Mosquitos found their way to the fledgling Israeli Air Force and Yarom flew them before being transferred to helicopters. Of course, he never landed a Mosquito on a carrier. Nor did he ever again land a helicopter on a flattop.
Photo: An Israeli S-58 helicopter like this one slipped into the landing pattern and landed on the USS Wasp (CVS-18) in 1958 in the eastern Mediterranean. Courtesy of Norman Polmar
1. There are several versions of this story. This account is based on a phone conversation and email between Lt. Col. Uri Yarom, Israel Air Force (Retired), and the author on 10 November 2006, and Uri Yarom’s book Knaf Renanim (Goodly Wings) published in Tel Aviv by the Israeli Ministry of Defence in 2001, pages. 219-221.
Norman Polmar is a frequent contributor to Proceedings.