Avraham Matzliah, 49, a father of twin soldiers from Ma'aleh Adumim, has been identified as one of the two Israelis killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday.
Matzliah worked in a high-tech company and travelled on the Africa-Israel line for many years.
The two daughters of Matzliah, twins named Yael and Noa, are 19-year-old soldiers. Noa serves in the Search and Rescue Brigade and Yael is a guide at Yad La-Shiryon.
Merav and Eva, Matzliah's sisters, told Channel 12 News in an interview that they had spoken to Avraham for the last time on Friday. Eva said that their mother was always afraid of flying and told Avraham that something bad would happen to him from all the flights he took. "He always laughed and became stronger over the last two years from a religious point of view and said that a person's fate is not up to him and when something bad happens, it will happen," she said.
"Unfortunately, we also lost our father under similar circumstances 39 years ago when he stumbled and fell from a height. We have a feeling of deja vu, the sudden death of a close, dear and young man."
The plane took off on Sunday from the Addis Ababa airport at 8:38 a.m. local time. Six minutes later the connection between the pilot and the control tower was lost. "The pilot noted that there were difficulties and that he wanted to return," the airline said.
The plane had 149 passengers and eight crew members. On Monday, investigators found the plane's black box at the scene of the crash.