RAF pilot was shot between the eyes (From Basingstoke Gazette)

RAF pilot was shot between the eyes

12:00pm Sunday 21st March 2010 in

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AN HEROIC pilot from RAF Odiham has described the moment he was shot between the eyes while flying a Chinook in Afghanistan.

Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune’s brush with death happened when he was shot at while ferrying seriously injured American and Afghan troops to safety from a ferocious firefight with the Taliban near Nad-E-Ali in Helmand Province in January.

The 28-year-old pilot, from RAF Odiham’s C Flight 27 Squadron, landed in the middle of heavy fire between the two sides, and watched as bullets hit the ground in front of the Chinook as the injured service personnel were carried on board.

Flt Lt Fortune then took off amid a hail of bullets and headed towards Camp Bastion with about 20 people on board.

In an exclusive interview with The Gazette, he said: “Just after a minute from the pick-up site, we came under fire again and one of the rounds came through the front and hit my helmet.

“At the time, there was a loud bang and a smell of burning and my head was forced back. As I opened my eyes, I saw a series of cracks on my visor and splattered blood.

“I thought for half-a-second that we may have hit something like a bird, but then I realised that I had been hit.”

The bullet hit a metal plate, just centimetres above Flt Lt Fortune’s helmet visor, which is used to attach night-vision goggles.

Remnants of the bullet and his visor hit Flt Lt Fortune’s face, leaving cuts including a deep gash on his cheek that bled on to his shoulder and chest.

He said that after a quick check to make sure he was okay, he informed the crew he had been hit and got on with the job of flying the Chinook back to Camp Bastion.

Bullets had also damaged the aircraft autopilot and stabilisation systems, but Flt Lt Fortune managed to land by the hospital in Camp Bastion after a seven-minute flight.

He was treated overnight in the hospital for his cuts and for shock, but was released the next day. The helmet that saved his life was taken away for testing.

The Chinook that day contained a crew from the Discovery Channel, which was filming the work of the Immediate Response Team Chin-ook, which acts effectively as a flying war zone ambulance in Afghanistan.

In national media reports, presenter Mike Brewer said: “The courage and heroism of the pilot was beyond belief.”

But Flt Lt Fortune said the other members of his four-man crew – co-pilot Flt Lt Doug Gardner, Flight Sergeant Tony Sutherland and Sgt Paul Day – also deserved to be praised.

He said: “It’s always very flattering and nice to hear people talk like that. But I would like to say that it was not an individual effort – it was definitely a crew thing.

“When we went out there, we knew it was going to be dangerous. We took the damaged aircraft back and everybody was doing their bit so that we got back as safely as possible.”

Flt Lt Fortune, who has been based at RAF Odiham since 2007, returned to north Hampshire with C Flight three weeks ago. He is due to return to Afghanistan in the autumn.