Reginald Levy, a decorated airman in the RAF during World War II, had a long and successful career as a pilot, mainly for the Belgian airline company Sabena.
 

Thirty eight years ago he flew the Boeing 707 from Vienna, with a stopover in Brussels en route to Tel Aviv when it was hijacked by four Black September terrorists who demanded Israel release prisoners.
 

For twenty-three hours the plane sat on the tarmac in Israel and officials attempted to negotiate with the hijackers.
 

Levy was sent by the terrorists to negotiate the terms for the hostages release with Israeli officials in the airport.

He told the Israelis how many hijackers were on board  and their location. The Israelis informed Levy of their plan, to let the air out of the plane’s tires and hamper the brake system and send "technicians" to fix it.

Levy told the hijackers the plane had technical problems and had to be fixed and purposely stalled for time by reading out a list of prisoners to be freed in the exchange, in order to allow the Israelis to carry out the plan.
 

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were among the Israeli commandos who posing as plane technicians, and stormed the plane on May 9, 1972 . Two hijackers were killed and two female captured and all 140 passengers on board were rescued.
 

Levy’s daughter Linda Lipschitz said shortly before her father died, he received a letter from Israel’s President Shimon Peres wishing him well after he was diagnosed with cancer.
 

Lipschitz said her father suffered a fatal heart attack on Sunday. “I spoke to him the day before and he told me how touched he was to receive a letter from Shimon Peres,” she said. Aged 88, he recently told her  that he has no regrets and had a good life, loving children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, she said.