Rabin said he overrode his own policy against aiding hijackers to allow the plane to land because it was about to crash. “What was reported to me was that the plane had little fuel, and I did not want to be a partner or to bear responsibility for the crash of a plane full of passengers,” Rabin said.
He said he directed the plane away from Tel Aviv, where the pilot had asked to land, to the sparsely populated desert area in case there was a bomb aboard.
Israel Radio picked up the conversation between the pilot and air traffic controllers. “We must make a crash landing or land in Israel,” the pilot said. “We must land in Tel Aviv. We cannot proceed. Did you copy? We are low in fuel. We are a hijacked aircraft. We must make a crash landing.”