9. Operation El Dorado Canyon
On the night of 14th April 1986, the American Air Force embraced its first battle since Vietnam. During radio silence, the El Dorado Canyon strike power got off the ground. F-111Fs that normally flew a battle mission enduring three hours would instead be visible all around for 14 hours. There was great uncertainty as to whether the plane could endure such a mission, particularly as the bulk of the men in the cockpits had never seen the battle. Re-fueling frequently, the F-111Fs swarmed down on Tripoli not long after 12 pm. Flying inbound off the Libyan coast at a low level, the F-111F slammed in the Mediterranean.
Nobody knows whether Karma 52 had a mechanical breakdown, whether pilot Maj. Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci flew into the water, or whether Gaddafi’s air protections scored a hit. The remains of the strike power went “downtown,” touching base over Tripoli at 2:00 a.m. neighborhood time. It was reported that Remit 31’s four bombs landed close to Gaddafi’s home, the Aziziyah Barracks, and supposedly resulted in the death of his baby daughter, Hanna. However, subsequent research and investigations have been unable to find confirmation that Gaddafi had a daughter named Hanna. The numbers of those killed amounted to around 60 on the ground, though Libyans declared that thousands had been killed.