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American Morning

Interview of Shane Osborn, Navy Pilot

Aired November 20, 2001 - 09:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Eight months ago, the U.S. was involved in a tense standoff with China over a crippled U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane. You might remember that the EP-3 aircraft and it's crew crash landed on China's Hanan Island after a collision with a Chinese jet fighter.

The crew was eventually released, and the plane returned to the U.S., but it was touch and go for several long days and nights. Navy pilot Shane Osborn recounts the ordeal in his book, "Born to Fly: the Untold Story of the Downed American Reconnaissance Plane." Shane Osborn joins us now from Seattle. It is great to have you with us this morning, welcome, Shane.

SHANE OSBORN, NAVY PILOT: Thanks for having me, Paula.

ZAHN: Before we talk about your book, I understand you will be headed off to Afghanistan in the next couple of days. What will you be doing there?

OSBORN: Same type of reconnaissance missions. I have a new crew. I'll be with Lt. Cumerford and myself, and a new crew, and we'll be joining some other crews out there already on the road, and continuing the mission and helping in the fight.

ZAHN: As you've watched the fortunes change quite dramatically over the last week, what are your thoughts as you enter into this very dangerous situation again?

OSBORN: My thoughts are I'm excited to serve my country again. And I look forward to getting over there and helping.

ZAHN: Let's go back to your last tour of duty. When, of course, you had to courageously bring the EP-3 down. in your book, you talk about the untold story, and I know you don't have time to go through hundreds of pages with us, this morning, but what is the critical thing the American public should understand that we didn't know from press accounts?

OSBORN: Well, I'd say the first thing was, would be how bad -- badly damaged and what type of situation and the aircraft was in after the collision. That we were inverted, and it goes into great detail, all the damage we had to the aircraft. And then, more importantly, the detention. The long hours of interrogation that the crew and myself faced while we were on the deck in China. It wasn't -- it wasn't pleasant.

ZAHN: Take us back to those first moments when you weren't sure whether you're going to keep that EP-3 under control or not? What do you remember about the initial hit?

OSBORN: Well, I remember it shaking violently and then I heard a pop, and that was his nose hitting ours. And the next thing I knew, we were flipped upside down, and I was looking -- looking up at the South China Sea and that was -- that was not a good -- not a good view, and saw half of a jet fighter screaming towards the ocean, and I remember thinking we're falling at the same rate he is.

So, I was fighting, putting inputs into the controls trying to get the plane right-side up. And it didn't respond, and it took about 8,000 feet until we got right-side up and we still were -- were in bad shape. I didn't think we were going to be able to land at that point either.

ZAHN: I know at the time you were being held everybody was trying figure out exactly, you know, how your training kicked in. Describe to us what was going on in the cockpit by other crew members as you're valiantly trying to gain control -- regain control of the plane?

OSBORN: Well, Lt. Vignery and myself were in the -- in the two sets of controls in the seat, and then Lt. Honeck, the off duty pilot, was standing right behind as well as Senior Mellos, and then Wendy Westbrook, she was also in the engineer's seat.

So, everybody was doing their part trying to get the engine shut down once the wings level. Trying to make sure we had assessment of what systems we lost. And what we still had. And then, we were all just working as a team to try and get to the closest point of land, and get the plane on the deck and get the crew prepared to bailout if necessary, and activate the emergency destruction plan, so it was -- it was a lot going on.

ZAHN: Was there ever a point where you thought you weren't going to make it?

OSBORN: I -- I wasn't -- I didn't think we were going to be able to land the plane safely until I had three down and locked on short final at Ling Shui (ph). I was worried the plane would come apart. That number one prop was still spinning.

ZAHN: Wow.

OSBORN: We were in a real bad shape. And I found out more things from the engineers at Lockheed that took the plane apart that we were in even worse shape than I thought.

ZAHN: And then of course, you said the next challenge was dealing with the detention. And folks will have to pick up your copy of your book to understand some of those details because you very vividly talk about what it was like to endure those -- those days of captivity. We wish you the best of luck and before we let you go, you are going to have two different versions of the book, right, one for kids and adults?

OSBORN: Sure. Sure there's a --

ZAHN: And why is that?

OSBORN: Well, I think it's most important to let the young adults -- let the younger generations of today know how important military service is, and that for to us remain free, we're going to need good men and women growing up and serving our country.

ZAHN: Shane Osborn. The book is "Born to Fly," and I think most Americans knew that when you got that EP-3 down. Best of luck to you in Afghanistan, and I have been told that the September 11th attacks embolded you to even serve a longer tour of duty for this country.

OSBORN: Of course.

ZAHN: Best of luck to you, Shane. Thank you again for your time.

OSBORN: Take care, Paula. Have a good day.

ZAHN: Have a good holiday, too.

OSBORN: You too.

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