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Pilots Shot Down in Iraq Tell of Dramatic Escape
Army pilots Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mark Burrows and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Steven Cianfrini were in a plane that crash-landed in a rural area south of Baghdad on Monday. They were later rescued.
(U.S. Army 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade)
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The firing grew more distant, and about the same time, Burrows said, he heard the distinct drone of a U.S. Army unmanned vehicle circling above. Then two Apache attack helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division swooped in, engaging the fighters with a 30mm Gatling gun and pushing them back.
Burrows knew it would be hard for the Apache pilots to spot them, and he loaded a flare. But Cianfrini vehemently advised against setting it off until they were sure the insurgents had left.
One Apache was over the nearby field, and Burrows managed to crawl out of the mud and scramble up the embankment, grasping at reeds. He waved the Apache down to the road and used his M4 to help pull Cianfrini out of the mud.
"I saw them hunkered down" near the road, said Apache pilot Chief Warrant Officer 3 Allan Davison, 28, of the 1-227 Attack Reconnaissance Battalion. Davison, of Tumwater, Wash., added: "I repositioned, and they ran over to the helicopter. They were all dirty and soaked to the bone."
Apache gunner Chief Warrant Officer 2 Micah Johnson, 25, of Del Rio, Tex., said at first it was hard to identify the pilots because their tan flight suits "looked dark brown, almost green." But seeing their M-9 pistols and radios, he motioned them to the aircraft.
"I did a visual scan and asked them if they were okay. They both looked good," Johnson said. "We were all pretty happy to see a couple of pilots walking away that day."
The Apache has only two seats. Cianfrini took one and Johnson strapped himself onto the exterior of the helicopter. Burrows used his survival vest to strap in on the other side.
Soaking and covered with mud, Burrows held onto the handgrip on the outside of the Apache, as it lifted off and headed back to base at 120 mph, buffeting him hard with the wind. But he didn't mind at all.
"I was in pretty high spirits, knowing I was going home," Burrows said. Back at the crash site, seven to eight insurgents moved toward the Kiowa, which was too badly damaged to recover, and were killed when an Air Force A-10 dropped two 500-pound bombs on the wreckage.
The two pilots, both from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Air Calvary Regiment, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., will have a minimum of four days before they have to fly another mission. They are to spend at least another year in Iraq.
