"We're very sad that the trip she took to a high, challenging place like Nepal, caused her death," a relative of Capt. Tamar Ariel, who was killed this week in an avalanche, said Thursday evening. Ariel, 24, from Kibbutz Masuot Yitzhak, made history in 2012 when she became the first religious female navigator in the Israeli Air Force. "She was a special woman, a pioneer, unique. She liked to do everything her own way, determined and ambitious, but nevertheless modest, honest, devoted, and loyal," a neighbor of the Ariel family said. At the 2012 ceremony when Ariel received her wings, she spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who told her that she had proved that "religious faith is a source of strength." At the time, Ariel's mother said she had never imagined her daughter as a flyer. "But that's how she is, always went after her dreams.
We never for a moment doubted she would finish the [navigator's] course and be what she dreamed of being." Ariel began flight training after performing two years of national service. On her first solo flight in July 2010, she was forced to abandon her aircraft on the runway after sensing that she had lost control of the brakes. When she bailed, she injured her spine and was forced to stay at home for a few months while she recovered. An inquiry into the incident concluded that she had acted correctly. When Ariel completed flight school and received her wings she was assigned to the Ha'emek squadron and flew on F-16 fighter planes. "Capt. Tamar Ariel was a pioneer, and in her short life left her mark through her deeds and will serve as a role model for many young women, religious and secular," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said. "Her choice to undertake pilot's training after finishing her national service was not an obvious one, and demonstrates her values, her character, and the way she was raised," Ya'alon added. Ariel's fellow squadron members were mourning her at the Ramat David IAF base. Squadron commander Lt. Col. Matan spoke of her warmly: "Tamar was an amazing combination of an observant woman, while also being a fighter in every sense." "She was a very professional navigator. She commanded soldiers and did so with great devotion and success. She was very talented. She played a bunch of instruments, and even though she was religious would play basketball with everyone else, better than some of the other pilots," her commanding officer recalled. Meanwhile, the residents of Kibbutz Yifat, the home of Agam Luria, 23, who was killed in the same avalanche as Ariel, are also in mourning. "It started with worry. We tried to find any details or information. We realized that he was there, in the avalanche, and that they tried to descend when they realized the storm was approaching.
We never imagined it would end this way," said Noi Einav, a schoolmate of Luria's. According to Einav, Luria had been apprehensive about the trip. "He was afraid he wouldn't make any friends and wouldn't know where to go or what to do. He was always reciting the mantra 'what if-' but surprised us all with how well he found his feet.
He found happiness there," she said. Or Feyrman, a friend of Luria's from the kibbutz, described him as some who "cared about everyone, and was loved on the kibbutz.
I talked to him a week ago and heard he was enjoying himself. He flourished there. We weren't surprised at the reports that he volunteered to be the last one out." Ronit Markovitch-Wilfin, Luria's high-school teacher, remembers him as an "amazing kid
a true leader, modest and friendly. A good student, always ready to help everyone." Agam Luria is survived by his mother, Vered, his sister, Ilil, and brother, Shahaf. At the religious community of Hoshaya in the Galilee, residents who only recently mourned the loss of 21-year-old Oren Noach Operation Protective Edge were hit Wednesday night with the news that Nadav Shoham had been killed in the Nepal avalanche. Nadav's mother, Tova, was home when the news of his death arrived, while his father, Moshe Shoham, a robotics professor at the Technion-Institute of Technology, was at a conference in Russia and had to take the first flight back to Israel. The Hoshaya community canceled Simchat Torah events planned for Thursday night in light of the news. "Nadav was born at Hoshaya 30 years ago and grew up in the community," a Hoshaya resident said. Nadav finished high school at a yeshiva in Tiberias and later studied at a kibbutz yeshiva. After his military service he studied mechanical engineering at the Technion. "He was good boy who went to travel for two weeks. He was supposed to return next week, he had spoken to his parents five days before [news of the accident]," a kibbutz resident said. "There is always that saying that only good can be said about the dead. But that was the case for Nadav when he was alive and everyone said it. I had never encountered someone a person that no one has a bad word to say about them. He had a heart of gold. We spoke a few days ago on Whatsapp and said we would travel together once he returned from Nepal. I wished him a pleasant trip in Nepal. What happened was horrible and terrifying, I can't believe it," one of Nadav's friends said.
