The crazy pilot Ahmed Al Mansouri

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Every year on October 6, he goes to the panorama of the October War to accept his MiG plane placed at the front of the panorama, saying to it, “My dear beloved... I miss you. It is my plane that lived with me and I lived with it more than I lived with my wife, and it bears the number 8040.” It is the first plane as you pass through Salah Salem, and it has a great story with this heroic pilot.

Our legendary hero took this plane into the street in an unprecedented precedent after running out of fuel in the longest air battle in the famous Battle of Mansoura, which destroyed the myth of the superiority of the Israeli Air Force.

He is the legendary pilot, Major General Ahmed Al-Mansouri, whom Israel called “the crazy pilot,” because he made unprecedented flying movements and landed his plane safely on the Zaafarana road, after destroying several Israeli planes around him that were distinguished from his plane in terms of armament and technology.

This battle was between two MiG-21 planes led by Al-Mansouri and Hassan Lotfi, with 6 Phantom planes, and within 30 seconds, Al-Mansouri, with his daring, guerrilla performance, and professionalism, was able to shoot down the plane of the Israeli squadron commander. The martyr Hassan Lutfi is considered one of the first martyrs of the Air Force. Before the beginning of the clash, Al-Mansouri gave Lutfi a “go without returning” signal, and he used to say to his students: “Before our martyrdom, the enemy must be destroyed.”

In another battle, his friend Suleiman Daifallah was in the formation next to him, whose plane caught fire after it was hit by an Israeli missile, so Al-Mansouri warned him and advised him to jump with a parachute, but Daifallah refused and swore to God that he would hit the Israeli plane first, and bombed the Israeli plane, then jumped with a parachute, and while he was descending, an Israeli pilot hit him with his cannon, and his leg was amputated and his entrails came out, and he obtained martyrdom.

Al-Mansouri and Dhaif Allah had each deposited his will with the other to be executed after his martyrdom. Dhaif Allah’s will said: “My wife, you are a young and beautiful woman. Get married to be chaste of yourself. As for my son, whom I saw only once, hand him over to my mother so that she may raise him as she raised me, and tell him my stories so that he will know what I have done.”

In Al-Mansouri's last sortie as commander of a formation of 4 planes against 16 Israeli planes, Al-Mansouri and his men were able to destroy 6 Israeli planes.

Major General Ahmed Al-Mansouri was called “the crazy pilot” by Israel, because he was performing military actions with his plane that no one else could do, including landing his plane in the street after it ran out of fuel.

Al-Mansouri is proud of this description, and considers it the most beautiful medal that came from the enemy. His story is taught in the military air academies, and he used to repeat, “Crazy and proud.” I am crazy and loves Egypt and its soil.

His constant motto in combat is “Seek death and it will give you life.” He says: “I am a man who fears death,” and his mother used to tell him that, because he participated in 52 air sorties in difficult battles victoriously. He was wounded twice and he considers them a military medal on his chest. He received dozens of high military medals.

He grew up in a military environment. His father was an officer, and he wished to be like him after his school participated in a military parade to celebrate the revolution. The biggest transformation in his life was when he saw squadrons of Egyptian planes leaving Almaza Airport to celebrate the July Revolution. He was determined to be a military pilot.

All his thoughts before the October victory were, “How do I take my tar, wash away my shame, and erase the defeat that occurred on June 5?”

The “last death maneuver” that they had trained in theory, he was able to implement in practice, and God saved him, even though the chances of death in it were 100%. He used to say: “I will not die alone, but I will kill with me the largest number of Israelis and destroy their planes and fortifications.”

When you contemplate Al-Mansouri with his bright face, his steadfast spirit, his confident, flowing words, and his endless enthusiasm, you belittle yourself and realize why Egypt won the October War with people like this man.

Al-Mansouri advises his children and grandchildren to bury his decorations, his medals, and his famous helmet, which he keeps to this day with Al-Mansouri written on it, and his overalls, which contain the smell of his sweat and blood and the smell of death that accompanied his heroism.

Salute to Major General Ahmed Al Mansouri, who I see as more energetic and determined than any young fighter in any army in the world.