Anyone know more precisely where this happened? I spent time there flying Twin Otters and Turbine DC3's there not so long ago and more than once there were bits of metal flying around as well as Antonov's offloading the "metal rice" overhead the runway. Recently a Danish co-pilot on a Beech 200(Aviation Assistance) was killed from small arms fire. Sounded like a luck shot as the only other damage was a hole in the tail. I think the aircraft was out of Juba heading back to Loki and they were doing a bit of sight-seeing.
The only helos I saw flying there were Mil8/17's in the Bar-e-gezel area and they were definately getting the locals excited so I'm not too surprised that they took an opportunity to shoot back. I hope the pilot recovers soon.
As for the money, in that part of the world you are styling with $400 a day! I'm too embarrassed to mention what we got <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> We also got excited when we learned what some of the expats were earning sitting back in the camp earning danger pay (in Kenya!)
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BTW since the last bit of Uncle Sam's hardware took out the aspirin-factory in Khartoum the Sudanese have not been keen on any Poms, Yanks or Frogs. Apart from all that it was a good experience (Loki at dawn I mean
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I just wish I hadn't spent all my few $$'s on wine women and song then I wouldn't have to stand outside the KFC and ask other people if I could lick their fingers!
PS those Kevlar seats would be a good call as well as some body armour.
pjohnson, do you know who they were doing the work for? A lot of the airfields we used were made by Chevron in the early '80's while they were doing some exploration work. Just curious as I'm in no rush to go back, especially in a helo.