What happened
An incident involving the unauthorized removal of an aircraft occurred at Tel Aviv-Sde Dov Airport. The pilot took control of the aircraft while it was parked at the airfield in an attempt to defect to another country. During the flight, the aircraft entered Syrian airspace.
As the aircraft proceeded over Syria, it was intercepted and forced out of the country's airspace by Syrian fighter jets. Following this encounter, the pilot chose to end the flight by crashing the plane. The aircraft impacted the ground in the western region of the Golan Heights. The incident resulted in one fatality, as the pilot was killed upon impact.
Findings
No official investigation findings were provided regarding the mechanical state of the aircraft, though the sequence of events indicates the crash was a deliberate act by the pilot following an aerial interception.