Ahmed Atif The FPK
"To all the
Egyptian Air Force personals who gave their souls to defend Egypt"
Ahmed Atif is not only an Egyptian Air Force hero
who shot down 7 Israeli fighters but he is also the first Egyptian and Arab
pilot to shot down an Israeli F-4E phantom. It was the afternoon of the 9th of December 1969 when he was flying in
a flight formation of 4 Egyptian Mig-21F-13 fighters heading to the north of
the gulf of Suez to support Egyptian Mig-21s returning from 
a successful intercepting mission to Israeli
reconnaissance aircraft over the mountain of Atka when the Egyptian GCI
controllers told them that there are 8 enemy aircraft flying over the north of
the gulf of Suez, so Ahmed and his men flew heading to the enemy aircraft using
their afterburners. After 5 minutes they encountered the enemy formation and
for their surprise it was the newly purchased F-4E phantom which was the most
advanced Israeli aircraft and it was the first time to be seen on the Egyptian
front. Ahmed made a hard turn and left his formation and after some maneuvers
he was on the tail of one the phantoms. He fired his gun on the F-4 but the
Israeli pilot escaped Ahmed’s bullets so Ahmed went with his fighter in dive
and then pointed his fighter upward and switched to the AA-2 Atoll missiles.
The phantom was then the only source of heat and he got the lock tone of the
missiles and fired the first missile which exploded directly under the F-4
fuselage then a line of thick black smoke began to come out the aircraft so
Ahmed fired his second missile which hit the aircraft which lost its speed
gradually then Ahmed switched to guns and fired on the damaged fighter which
then exploded. The pilot and the navigator were rescued by the Egyptian
helicopter and were taken as POWs and for the coincidence Ahmed was one of the
first Egyptian to fly on the Egyptian F-4Es in 1979. This is one story of a lot
of stories of heroic deeds of Egyptian Air Force pilots and personals to defend
Egypt, and who could forgot the Egyptian pilot whose aircraft was severely
damaged over EL-Melis airbase in Sinai during 1973 war and without thinking he
went with his burning aircraft down to hit 3 Israeli aircraft on the ground
were trying to take off and he destroyed them with his aircraft.
