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Tapes Indicate Pilots Worried About Friendly Fire
Aired January 16, 2003 - 14:14 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on to that fateful decision in the heat of battle and the fog of war. Tapes indicate two U.S. pilots were worried within moments after dropping a bomb in Afghanistan. That bomb killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight others. A hearing continues today in Louisiana to determine if the two will be court marshalled.
CNN's Ed Lavandera, live at Barksdale Air Force Base -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what has been going on here over the last 15 hours here at Barksdale Air Force Base is that the interpretation of the videotape, the view from the two F-16 fighter jets that were flying over Afghanistan when this friendly-fire bombing happened, and what we've seen is a lot of debate and discussion as to what exactly the voices that you hear, and what everything means or should have meant to the pilots.
Attorneys for the pilots contending that they were given no information, that they were never told that -- what they were looking at below them was actually the Canadian army forces in a live-fire training mission. They said they waited way too long, and asked for permission, and asked for information, but were never given the information they needed.
So they questioned the central command -- the command structure and the information structure as to why this information couldn't have been passed along.
Now, there has been -- one of the air force officials, one of the air force officers, testifying today talking about a couple of things, and one of them in particular, that after witnessing the videotape, he says was surprised to see just how quickly, in his opinion, the pilots engaged the target.
They said there were incredibly strict rules of engagement, because of this very possible problem of friendly fire accidents occurring. So they say, for that reason, the rules of engagement were very strict in the skies over Kandahar last April. So they wonder why it was these pilots engaged so quickly.
Defense attorneys say that's just plain wrong, that they actually actually asked -- waited for several moments, and in the heat of what they perceived to be battle, you just can't ask pilots to wait that long to get the information that they need -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And obviously, fault lies in many areas here, but I just want to know, when are we going to hear more about the issue of command and control, and who exactly had control of that area, and what did command and control know, what did the AWACS know, and when was that information finally relayed?
LAVANDERA: Well, and that's what they're trying to lay out now. The officer that is testifying is part of the command structure that was based in Saudi Arabia. Of course, as you mentioned, there was an AWACS surveillance plane flying overhead, over the F-16 fighter jets.
At one point in the tape, you hear -- if you've heard it over the last couple of hours -- that there is talk of a restricted operational zone, or a raw (ph) zone, and the officer is saying that the pilots should have known, the AWACS plane should have known that this area just outside of Kandahar was a raw (ph) zone, which would have indicated to these pilots to be very careful.
But if you go back and listen to that tape, you hear a conversation between the pilots and the AWACS officer saying that they did not believe that it was a raw (ph) zone, and that's where defense attorneys here for these pilots -- say to pay close attention to. They say that they should have known, and it was very clear that on the tape they didn't know, and that is exactly why this accident happened.
PHILLIPS: Our Ed Lavandera, live from Louisiana. Thanks, Ed.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 16, 2003 - 14:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on to that fateful decision in the heat of battle and the fog of war. Tapes indicate two U.S. pilots were worried within moments after dropping a bomb in Afghanistan. That bomb killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight others. A hearing continues today in Louisiana to determine if the two will be court marshalled.
CNN's Ed Lavandera, live at Barksdale Air Force Base -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what has been going on here over the last 15 hours here at Barksdale Air Force Base is that the interpretation of the videotape, the view from the two F-16 fighter jets that were flying over Afghanistan when this friendly-fire bombing happened, and what we've seen is a lot of debate and discussion as to what exactly the voices that you hear, and what everything means or should have meant to the pilots.
Attorneys for the pilots contending that they were given no information, that they were never told that -- what they were looking at below them was actually the Canadian army forces in a live-fire training mission. They said they waited way too long, and asked for permission, and asked for information, but were never given the information they needed.
So they questioned the central command -- the command structure and the information structure as to why this information couldn't have been passed along.
Now, there has been -- one of the air force officials, one of the air force officers, testifying today talking about a couple of things, and one of them in particular, that after witnessing the videotape, he says was surprised to see just how quickly, in his opinion, the pilots engaged the target.
They said there were incredibly strict rules of engagement, because of this very possible problem of friendly fire accidents occurring. So they say, for that reason, the rules of engagement were very strict in the skies over Kandahar last April. So they wonder why it was these pilots engaged so quickly.
Defense attorneys say that's just plain wrong, that they actually actually asked -- waited for several moments, and in the heat of what they perceived to be battle, you just can't ask pilots to wait that long to get the information that they need -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And obviously, fault lies in many areas here, but I just want to know, when are we going to hear more about the issue of command and control, and who exactly had control of that area, and what did command and control know, what did the AWACS know, and when was that information finally relayed?
LAVANDERA: Well, and that's what they're trying to lay out now. The officer that is testifying is part of the command structure that was based in Saudi Arabia. Of course, as you mentioned, there was an AWACS surveillance plane flying overhead, over the F-16 fighter jets.
At one point in the tape, you hear -- if you've heard it over the last couple of hours -- that there is talk of a restricted operational zone, or a raw (ph) zone, and the officer is saying that the pilots should have known, the AWACS plane should have known that this area just outside of Kandahar was a raw (ph) zone, which would have indicated to these pilots to be very careful.
But if you go back and listen to that tape, you hear a conversation between the pilots and the AWACS officer saying that they did not believe that it was a raw (ph) zone, and that's where defense attorneys here for these pilots -- say to pay close attention to. They say that they should have known, and it was very clear that on the tape they didn't know, and that is exactly why this accident happened.
PHILLIPS: Our Ed Lavandera, live from Louisiana. Thanks, Ed.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
