OtherJewish Eligibility — Verified by JWR

Operation Solomon — Record Flight

An El Al Boeing 747 flight during Operation Solomon, documented by IDF sources as carrying 1,087 Ethiopian Jewish passengers from Addis Ababa to Israel; exact historical onboard totals vary by source.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia → Israel

Ethiopian Jewish passengers aboard an El Al Boeing 747 during Operation Solomon

Michael Zarfati / IDF Spokesperson's Unit / Wikimedia CommonsSourceCC BY-SA 3.0

About

Operation Solomon was the emergency 24–25 May 1991 airlift that brought more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa to Israel. One El Al Boeing 747 flight became the uncontested overall aircraft-passenger record; JWR uses 1,087 as the conservative verified Jewish-passenger count. An El Al Boeing 747 flight during Operation Solomon, documented by IDF sources as carrying 1,087 Ethiopian Jewish passengers from Addis Ababa to Israel; exact historical onboard totals vary by source. In Jewish World Records, Operation Solomon — Record Flight is connected to the record “Most Jewish Passengers on a Single Flight,” based on the stored achievement of 1,087 verified Jewish passengers on a single flight. During Operation Solomon on 24 May 1991, an El Al Boeing 747 carried an extraordinary number of Ethiopian Jewish passengers from Addis Ababa to Israel in one of the most remarkable rescue airlifts in aviation history.

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Records held by Operation Solomon — Record Flight

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Aviation & Transport · FlightsMost

Most Jewish Passengers on a Single Flight

Record holder

Operation Solomon — Record Flight

Record value

1,087 verified Jewish passengers on a single flight

During Operation Solomon on 24 May 1991, an El Al Boeing 747 carried an extraordinary number of Ethiopian Jewish passengers from Addis Ababa to Israel in one of the most remarkable rescue airlifts in aviation history. JWR uses the conservative verified figure of 1,087 Jewish passengers, based on the official IDF account, while Guinness World Records reports an official total of 1,088 and notes that contemporary sources gave conflicting totals. Guinness also records an extraordinary detail: its 1,088 total includes two babies born during the flight. If counted in the onboard total, the births meant the aircraft landed with more people aboard than had originally boarded. Because the historical passenger totals differ between authoritative sources, JWR preserves 1,087 as its verified record value while presenting the in-flight births as a sourced historical detail.

Holder country: Israel
Achievement location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Achievement date: 24 May 1991

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