How Alaska Airlines Brought Nearly 50,000 Jews to Israel

“Operation Magic Carpet.” That is the nickname given to a series of flights back and forth between the city of Aden, in Yemen, and Israel, in the years just following Israeli independence. This was just one operation of many across the region, because at the time hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees had to vacate their hostile homes and find their way to Israel.

Yemenite Jewish refugees had sought to leave what was a troubled state of affairs in Yemen, including a civil war and economic devastation. The Imam of Yemen had allowed most of the Jews to go.

Officially called “Operation On Wings of Eagles,” this has been portrayed as an almost mystical story. A scramble on the part of the Yemenite Jews, who trekked to Aden, which was under British control at the time. A successful airlift of nearly 50,000. A religious significance, as they were to finally make aliyah. The name of the operation was based on a pasuk, Exodus 19:4, in which G-d states “how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” But, while this is a fascinating picture involving heroic pilots and determined Yemenite Jewish refugees, things may not have been so rosy.

Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, a historian who specializes in Jewish history in Arab countries including Yemen, notes in a journal article many failures on the part of the organizers, pointing out that the Yemenite Jews waiting in Aden had to endure “hot climatic conditions and heavy sandstorms, and there was a shortage of food, medicine, and medical care.” Hundreds sadly died.

The organizing on the ground had great difficulties. However, when we turn our attention to the air, we can find the heroic team of Alaska Airlines carrying out this operation (quite literally). The pilots of Alaska Airlines took extraordinary efforts and risks and we should applaud the overall successful accomplishment on their part of bringing almost 50,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel during this toll-taking, yet remarkable operation.

So, what got Alaska Airlines involved in the first place? As it happens, the president, James Wooten, was what The Jewish Week describes as “a humanitarian businessman,” with a history including providing aid to West Germans as well as bringing Jews to Israel from Iraq and Iran.

Marvin Goldman explains in his book El Al: Israel’s Flying Star that El Al needed help because they had to use their limited fuel for the war effort and the Arab countries restricted their airspace.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) asked Wooten for assistance in transporting the Yemenite Jews to Israel. Joe Spier describes in an article for Aish how Wooten was eager to help, but the Chairman of the Board was more skeptical and “insisted Wooten front the funds himself.” So, he did. Wooten secured the money from a travel agency connected to the JDC, and Operation Magic Carpet was a go.

They had to replace the normal seats on the plane with benches, Spier explains, so that they could bring more people onto the flight. 120 people were now able to fit onto a plane only intended to hold 50. They also had to bring in extra fuel tanks.

When, in the midst of the operation, they could no longer continue under Alaska Airlines, the pilots established a new company, the Near East Air Transport, and carried on with their efforts. It was effectively Alaska Airlines under a different name.

Bob Maguire was the pilot in charge of Operation Magic Carpet. “Moving that many people under those conditions required an operation that would have been illegal under U.S. aviation rules,” he said in an interview with Alaska Airlines. He also flew way more hours than he would be allowed back at home. The operation even contributed to health problems he had which caused him to lose his pilot’s license: “I didn’t find out until later that there were parasites in the water where we swam in Aden that contributed to the problem.”

Stanley Epstein, another of the pilots involved in this mission, recalled to Alaska Airlines how Maguire had to land in Egypt, which was hostile territory, because their plane ran out of fuel. Using his wits, Maguire told airport officials that some of the passengers had smallpox. “They wanted him out of there right away,” Epstein said. “So he got some fuel and left.”

Maguire, whose father happens to have been a judge in the Nuremberg Trials, was dubbed the “Irish Moses” by David Ben-Gurion, and he was honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Epstein also remembered how the airline “painted an eagle with outstretched wings over the door of each airplane.” This is of course alluding to the official name of the operation, “On Wings of Eagles.” He continued: “They were living their legend and Alaska Airlines helped fulfill that legend.”

Also helping in the operation were Warren and Marian Metzger. He was a pilot and she was a flight attendant. They managed to find time during this mission to…get married.

Elgen Long was the last surviving pilot of Operation Magic Carpet (he passed away in 2022). The New York Jewish Week reported on a ceremony hosted by StandWithUs which honored Long in 2017. Long spoke of the dozen flights that he participated in, and recalled how they packed as many people as they could onto the plane. “Everyone you could take, was a life you saved,” he said.

While certainly a dire situation, the successful airlift of tens of thousands of Yemenite Jews from Aden to Israel was a remarkable and praiseworthy accomplishment on the part of Alaska Airlines and its crew.