UNCTUOUS
5th Jun 2003, 11:20
Received this today from a mate who's also a well-known media front-man and war correspondent (but as I haven't asked his permission to identify him here, I won't). His request is pretty straight forward. If anyone can assist please email [email protected] and I'll put you in touch with him.
Extract:
Very interesting slides. We got to meet some of the Aussies who'd discovered that barge in Iraq waters and they're well-respected for having done a fantastic job.
I am wondering if your contacts can help me track down a former British Tornado pilot who would have flown in the First Gulf War. When I was in Baghdad the last few weeks I met a charming former Iraqi Sukhoi jet pilot who used to be one of their test pilots before the Iraqi Airforce went ga-ga. He has told me how he was on a bridge, driving across in his private vehicle, en route to his base during Gulf War 1 when he looked up from the road on the approach to the Bridge and saw a British jet in an attack on the same bridge he was on. I actually thought these attacks were done from tens of thousands of feet but he maintains the Brit pilot was visibly on an attack dive-angle and clearly about to launch a missile on the bridge he was about to cross. Because he was himself a jet pilot, he maintains he only survived because it was obvious the Brit pilot held off his attack to let his car clear the bridge. The bridge was apparently then destroyed seconds after he'd crossed it.
He has very good detail of this incident and I remember Schwarzkopf showing a video in one briefing back then where he asserted that the driver of a vehicle that just managed to clear a bridge was the luckiest man in Iraq. But, if it is the same incident then it occurred to me that it might be a nice yarn for one of the flight magazines to introduce the Brit pilot to the former Iraqi test pilot whose life he saved. Have you got any ideas about how I could track down this Tornado pilot?
Extract:
Very interesting slides. We got to meet some of the Aussies who'd discovered that barge in Iraq waters and they're well-respected for having done a fantastic job.
I am wondering if your contacts can help me track down a former British Tornado pilot who would have flown in the First Gulf War. When I was in Baghdad the last few weeks I met a charming former Iraqi Sukhoi jet pilot who used to be one of their test pilots before the Iraqi Airforce went ga-ga. He has told me how he was on a bridge, driving across in his private vehicle, en route to his base during Gulf War 1 when he looked up from the road on the approach to the Bridge and saw a British jet in an attack on the same bridge he was on. I actually thought these attacks were done from tens of thousands of feet but he maintains the Brit pilot was visibly on an attack dive-angle and clearly about to launch a missile on the bridge he was about to cross. Because he was himself a jet pilot, he maintains he only survived because it was obvious the Brit pilot held off his attack to let his car clear the bridge. The bridge was apparently then destroyed seconds after he'd crossed it.
He has very good detail of this incident and I remember Schwarzkopf showing a video in one briefing back then where he asserted that the driver of a vehicle that just managed to clear a bridge was the luckiest man in Iraq. But, if it is the same incident then it occurred to me that it might be a nice yarn for one of the flight magazines to introduce the Brit pilot to the former Iraqi test pilot whose life he saved. Have you got any ideas about how I could track down this Tornado pilot?