Anne Soy and Lucy Fleming
BBC News, Nairobi & London
Ukrainian helicopter
Captain Serch Musica, who began his career in the Soviet Army, never dreamed of his final development before heading to retirement after 43 years of pilot helicopter was filmed like a Tom Cruise film.
The 60-year-old Ukrainian fell into a horrific and deadly situation in South Sudan earlier this month when what seemed like a UN routine operation turned into the most dramatic of his career.
During his military service, including 20 years in the Ukrainian Army, he served in Afghanistan and other dangerous places. He also encountered other danger zones while working as a private contractor, including saving the victims of a plane crash in Somalia in 2015.
However, his mission to evacuate wounded soldiers from a military base in Nasir in Upper Nile province in northern South Sudan is his most memorable.
The firefight at the base after their arrival resulted in claiming the lives of more than 20 South Sudan soldiers on the ground.
He himself was shot in the arm, allowing him to safely guide the helicopter that had miraculously come off and damaged.
A small clip he took from inside the cockpit with his phone shows that he was bloody, nearby controls were covered in blood, shattering the windshield, and he and his co-pilot flew the Shurabrand to the nearest airport for nearly an hour.
It “like a movie,” he admitted to the BBC – clearly still rocked by the event.
“I thought it happened in a dream,” the pilot added. He worked for a company called Helicopters in Ukraine.
On the day of the shootout, the company had contracted to evacuate six wounded soldiers through a UN mission in South Sudan.
The UN peacekeeping forces are trying to protect a peace agreement that is fraying on the edge, with warning that the world’s latest nation is about to enter another civil war.
The first one that erupted three years after independence lasted five years, killing nearly 400,000 people.
President Salva Kir fought against Vice President Leek Machar, gaining support from his respective ethnic groups.
The pair agreed to end the war in 2018 – and one of the objectives of their powershirring contract was to join the power of their rivals and create a unified army.
AFP
An important part of the peace agreement is to have integrated forces, including rebels and government forces – like this we saw at the 2022 graduation ceremony
However, recent conflicts in Nasir County reveal a distrust of slow progress in this.
The area is home to militias known as white people. The recruits fought in support of Machar during the Civil War.
The community there is distrust of regular army forces who are deemed loyal to Kiel and are seeking the deployment of a unified unit.
However, more regular army soldiers were sent to the area last month – saying the move was a breach of the ceasefire and transition agreement, and tensions erupted.
Kiel’s part said the decision was a routine military rotation, but things quickly deteriorated when white people seized the army base on March 4th.
This is when Captain Musica and his team were asked to fly the trapped soldiers.
They had already made one trip – on March 6th – extracted 10 people after landing at a point designated for use by the United Nations.
The next day they returned – and everything went according to the plan until the passengers began boarding.
The firing began and it was difficult to tell what was going on amidst the chaos.
The first Captain Musica knew something was seriously wrong.
His flight attendant Sergi Plijodoko – standing in front of the UN negotiator – was then shot.
Captain Musica knew they were under attack, and his military training began: “The shooting began from the front and right, and from the left and from the back. I decided to take off immediately.”
As he lifted it, he said he saw the soldier falling to the ground outside the aircraft.
“We couldn’t say exactly what time we spent. [between the start of gunfire and taking off] – A small part of a second. ”
The helicopter frame continued to collide when it was in the air, and the fuel tanks drilled holes.
They had to go to the airport in Malakal, the region’s capital, an hour away, and things didn’t look good in the cockpit.
“Some systems were damaged, like the main gearbox,” he said.
The possibility of collision land was always present during flight. So Colonel Musica decided to fly as fast and low as possible.
“The temperature of the oil was [at] Critical – Max, and I flew 100m [328ft] Ground level. ”
That way, he could make an emergency landing within 20 seconds, following his calculations.
He also asked the crew to keep an eye on clearings with no trees or bushes, just in case one was needed.
In the meantime, flight engineers used the shirt as a tornicket to stop the captain’s arm bleeding.
In the video clip, the torn shirt is seen tied just above his elbows – blood was on his lower arm, in his pants, and splattered into his seat.
Short clip from inside the cockpit after a shooting
The footage shows trickle that clots blood in his forehead, pans to the shirtless crew and the co-pilot who was also injured by the co-pilot.
He was experiencing pain on his right side, Captain Musica said.
“Fortunately, it was a minor injury from a plastic debris through the window on the right.”
They experienced even more difficulties as they finally approached Malakal Airport. The helicopter’s front wheel was blocked because it was hit during the attack.
Nevertheless, Captain Musica succeeded 49 minutes after taking off under fire, with more than 20 gunshot holes in his body.
“It was a huge relief,” he told the BBC.
At that point he felt pain from the injury. It was so surreal he thought, “Maybe I’m asleep.”
Ukrainian helicopter
Serhiy muzyka standing by a damaged helicopter.
As a military pilot, he said he was attacked in Afghanistan in 1987.
The crew and passengers were seen by a doctor as soon as they reached Malakal.
However, he was unable to save Prykhodko, 41, who died of injuries.
“We couldn’t believe it,” the captain said.
The Ukrainian helicopter crew were then caught up in a ceremony where they were awarded the UN Medal. The UN mission head said the attacks “may constitute a war crime under international law.”
It was tough for the crew to accept the loss of their colleagues. And all of this incidents added to concerns about relatives returning homes being attacked by Russian troops.
Colonel Musica is now back in Ukraine to treat him and meet his family.
He wants the future to “common sense wins in the world” and knows that retirement is on the card, but he still feels young to “I can fly.”
Getty Images/BBC
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