Admittedly, Frauenknecht's system was actually rather ingenious, but for quite different reasons. The drive from the factory to the incinerator lasted for about fifteen minutes. Imagine there was somewhere along the route, such as a garage, where the crates could be unloaded and replaced by similar looking ones, before the van continued on its journey. This operation would only take around two or three minutes at most. These new boxes would contain old plans that Frauenknecht had collected from here and there. The security guard at the incinerator was not an engineer and so had no way of uncovering the deception. What is more, the documents were marked as ‘confidential', so he could not be too curious in any case.
The plan worked successfully for weeks, with no questions asked. Every Saturday, Frauenknecht and his cousin went back to the garage where the substitution had taken place and prepared more crates with fake plans for the following week. As for the crates containing the real plans, these were loaded into a car and were sent towards Germany, where they were unloaded in an industrial warehouse, close to the border. Once there, a driver from the warehouse, who regularly crossed the border and so was very familiar with the customs process on both sides, took charge of the crates and drove them into Germany. Afterwards, the driver (Strecker), would go to a small private airfield where the boxes were loaded onto a small plane. From here they would be flown to an airport in southern Italy where an El Al plane would be waiting. Under this careful operation, almost all the Mirage plans arrived in Israel. There were a few exceptions: even the best-laid plans have flaws.
In this instance, it was a case of human error. Still sticking to the official version, it was the driver's fault. On a beautiful Saturday, the owner of the warehouse near the border had decided to make an inspection of his company. In front of the hanger he saw a car, waiting inside was one of his drivers, Strecker. The man was surprised to see him there on a Saturday as the business was closed. What's more, as soon as the driver saw his boss, he was startled and quickly disappeared. Intrigued, the owner decided to inspect the hangar, where by chance he discovered a crate marked ‘confidential'. Naturally, he immediately alerted the Swiss authorities and fairly soon, the police discovered the root of the issue. Frauenknecht was arrested and freely admitted what he had done, claiming that his conscience was clear. Everything he had done was to help Israel and he had in no way intended harm his country's interests. His actions were legally, not morally wrong. He was very confident and even dared to declare during his trial that in reality, far from causing harm to France, the whole affair had provided great publicity for the Mirage aircraft and for the Dassault company.
The story of the warehouse owner's ‘accidental' visit to the hangar should obviously be taken with a pinch of salt. In reality, the man, who was also a local deputy, clearly went to inspect the warehouse after being told that something suspect was happening. We do not know who alerted him, but there were certainly many who had an interest in preventing the documents from flying to Israel: it's enemies, which included the Arab states or even the KGB. French whistleblowers can probably be excused from the list for at least two reasons: firstly, because the intelligence agency had worked so closely with Israel for a number of years, it felt rather sympathetic towards it. This resulted in a general hostility towards the embargo imposed by de Gaulle. In addition, they were fully aware of the plans, which were no doubt approved and even favoured by some.
The French services had therefore secretly helped Israel in this matter. It is even possible that the idea to circumvent the embargo via Switzerland, where Sulzer were manufacturing the Mirage, was suggested by Mossad agents working in the intelligence bureau. This means that the version of the story proclaiming that Frauenknecht was acting on his own initiative to help Israel, is certainly fabricated. He undoubtedly had sympathy with the Jewish state, but it should not be forgotten that this seemingly selfless character was paid quite handsomely for his work. He was not greedy, however, and could have asked for much more than the $200,000 he received.
The idea to steal the plans was therefore by no means his alone. This story was later dreamt up to lessen the severity of his actions, but also to conceal Israel's responsibility and to avoid a diplomatic incident. Indeed, the Swiss are quite touchy when it comes to illegal activities taking place in their territory, so it was out of the question for Mossad to appear to visible. This is why Frauenknecht claimed that he had stolen the plans in order to rescue Israel, which being seriously threatened by its Arab neighbours. Even though this deception could not last forever, he could still save a little of Switzerland's dignity, which is why the stolen plans were shipped from a German airfield, not a Swiss one.
In reality, the whole affair was conducted by Mossad. The
