Brought Home British Lynx After PIC Was Wounded

An Australian military exchange pilot serving with a British flight squadron in Iraq is being hailed as a hero for taking control of a helicopter after the pilot was wounded by ground fire.

It happened south of Baghdad Wednesday, according to military officials. Group Captain Scott Watkins of the Australian Army Air Corps was acting as co-pilot on board a British Army Lynx helo when the aircraft came under attack.

"There were two aircraft, us and a Puma, about halfway to Baghdad, when I heard some shots. I didn't realize at the time that my co-pilot had been hit," Scott told the London Daily Telegraph. "The Puma was in front and radioed that it was under attack. I think, in fact that we flew into the path of the bullets aimed at the Puma.

"I thought at first that the bullets had come through the floor. But what had actually happened was that we were banking hard to the right at the time, and they had come through the window. My gunner saw two guys in a trench firing up from 100 to 200m away.

"It was extraordinarily unlucky that my mate was hit. We have Kevlar seats and Kevlar protection at the sides. There is a two-inch gap between and that is what one of the bullets went through."

In quick order, Watkins said, two more bullets slammed into the instrument panel. It was time to go home -- and fast.

The British pilot took a slug in the chest. Watkins, one of two Australian soldiers involved in the exchange program, didn't miss a beat. He took control of the aircraft and landed it safely back at Camp Dogwood, a nearby coalition base.

"I'm a little bit embarrassed to have so much attention drawn to me because it is not as if I am the first person – or my crew are the first people – to be shot upon out here in Iraq," he told Australia's Daily Telegraph after his story ran in the British newspaper. "So, to that degree, I feel that the attention is probably greater than really what it should be. But I'm happy to tell the story. There were some really good things done by some fantastic people here. And people should know that."

FMI: www.army.mod.uk/blackwatch, www.army.gov.au