Question about the entebbe hijacking...?

Question:when the israeli's landed the airplane at then entebbe airport at night hoping for a surprise attack, didnt the ugandian soldiers hear the plane land which should arouse suspicion?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: when the israeli's landed the airplane at then entebbe airport at night hoping for a surprise attack, didnt the ugandian soldiers hear the plane land which should arouse suspicion?

The entire situation at the Entebbe Airport were outside the normal day to day routines, Idi Amin frequently visited the Airport often unannounced. Israel took advantage of this, the guards thought that Idi Amin was visiting again, the were unsure and cautious, not wanting to fire on or even delay Amin in any way. The Ugandains were more afraid of Amin than the Israeli's.
This delay gave the Israeli's enouhg time to disembarke and launch they coordinated attack.

Fault the the Ugandain forces failure to defend the base was the very nature of the Armed Forces of Uganda lack of credible leadership, and training.

nope, they were all asleep

It's called having the element of surprise.

When the teams landed the cargo bay doors were open and the vehicles used to transport the teams to the terminal were painted to resemble Idi Amim vehicles...except for one important vehicle that blew element of surprise. Took total of 30 min start to finish and only loss was the assault team commander killed by sniper and a couple of hostages caught in crossfire. Good planing allowed them to be in and out with hostages in short time frame. I think in general the days of such precise operations are no longer...just don't know why.

according to the reports from the rescued hostages, the ugandans and the terrorists were not asleep and got very suspicious of the c-130's landing at the airport. amin often traveled by air with his car inside. it was quickly brushed aside by the ugandans thinking it was amin that landed. also when the israelis brought out an exact replica of amin's staff car, everyone there relaxed. the problem was that the car did not have amin inside but 5 highly trained soldiers from the israeli special forces. after the sentries were killed, with silenced weapons, the rest of the israeli's that were on the strike force, disembarked from the planes and attacked the terminal itself. the result of all the action was one israeli soldier killed, lt. col."yani" netanyhu and two hostages. it is a text book example of how to deal with terrorists. you kill them, never negotiate.

The C-130 Hercules, carying the Israeli strike force made a classic short - field landing at the far end of the airfield on a little used runway. It is most likely that the controllers in the tower, not expecting any traffic, were smoking and joking and not necessarily looking out. The controllers inside the tower might not have heard the landing and the Ugandan troops and terrorists might have heard and not paid attention, since planes do land and take off from airports. It wasn't necessarily their job to verify who was landing. It is kinda tough anyhow on a dark field from a long distance.

However, Idi Amin is said to have ordered the deaths of the controllers for their failure to spot the intruders.