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American Morning
Air Force Released Video of Friendly Fire Accident
Aired January 16, 2003 - 07:17 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is expected to be more testimony yet again today in the friendly fire case against two U.S. pilots. The issue here is whether or not the National Guard flyers will be court-martialed for the accidental bombing in Afghanistan that took the lives of four Canadian soldiers.
Ed Lavandera is live from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana -- chilling comments yesterday.
Ed -- good morning.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Of course, what's getting the most headlines is the videotape from the view of the two F-16 fighter jets. And of course, this will only be a portion of all of the testimony we hear over the course of the next two weeks, but of course, this is the first time we've ever been able to get such an up-close and personal view of what these two F-16 fighters pilots were going through on this 10-hour mission on their way back to the base in Kuwait before they ran into what was a disastrous situation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): On the left, you see Major Bill Umbach's view of the sky and ground near Kandahar; on the right is Major Harry Schmidt's view. It's the middle of the night when the pilots notice rocket-propelled ground fire and people scattering around. Schmidt requests permission from the surveillance plane overhead to launch a warning shot.
MAJ. HARRY SCHMIDT, AIR FORCE: I've got a battalion in the vicinity. I request permission to lay down some 20 mike-mike (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's just make sure that it's not friendlies, that's all.
LAVANDERA: Schmidt holds fire. For the next 80 seconds, the pilots continue seeing tracer rounds. A military review found the pilots should have climbed to a higher altitude and left the area. Schmidt sensed deadly danger.
SCHMIDT: I've got some men on a road, and it looks like a piece of artillery firing at us. I am rolling in, in self-defense.
LAVANDERA: It takes 20 seconds for Schmidt to line up the target.
SCHMIDT: Bombs away, breaking left.
LAVANDERA: Another 20 second pass, and you see the laser-guided bomb strike the Canadian army unit, four men killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
LAVANDERA: Then 10 seconds later, the dreadful words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) disengage, friendlies (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys say that information should have been passed along sooner.
CHARLES GITTINS, SCHMIDT'S ATTORNEY: That's the job of the command and control to push that information to pilots. They shouldn't have to call and try to figure out where the needle in the haystack is.
LAVANDERA: For the next several minutes, both pilots circle the area, trying to make sense of what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they were definitely shooting at you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sure seemed like they were tracking around and everything and trying to lead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a group of guys on a road around a gun, and it did not look organized like it would be our guys. I hope that was the right thing to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Of course, what we all know now is that the unit that was bombed there just outside of Kandahar was a Canadian army unit in a live-fire training exercise.
And what defense attorneys for the two pilots have been trying to do over the last couple of days is they have called to the stand, what we've heard from testimony, are the Canadian soldiers that survived the bombing, and they explained what they were using, the weaponry and ammunition that were being used in this live-fire training exercise. The point of all of this for defense attorneys is trying to establish why from thousands of feet above the ground using night-vision goggles at 2:00 in the morning, why the ammunition and the weaponry that was being used could have easily been mistaken for a fire-fight -- Bill.
HEMMER: Tough story. Ed Lavandera.
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 - 07:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is expected to be more testimony yet again today in the friendly fire case against two U.S. pilots. The issue here is whether or not the National Guard flyers will be court-martialed for the accidental bombing in Afghanistan that took the lives of four Canadian soldiers.
Ed Lavandera is live from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana -- chilling comments yesterday.
Ed -- good morning.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Of course, what's getting the most headlines is the videotape from the view of the two F-16 fighter jets. And of course, this will only be a portion of all of the testimony we hear over the course of the next two weeks, but of course, this is the first time we've ever been able to get such an up-close and personal view of what these two F-16 fighters pilots were going through on this 10-hour mission on their way back to the base in Kuwait before they ran into what was a disastrous situation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): On the left, you see Major Bill Umbach's view of the sky and ground near Kandahar; on the right is Major Harry Schmidt's view. It's the middle of the night when the pilots notice rocket-propelled ground fire and people scattering around. Schmidt requests permission from the surveillance plane overhead to launch a warning shot.
MAJ. HARRY SCHMIDT, AIR FORCE: I've got a battalion in the vicinity. I request permission to lay down some 20 mike-mike (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's just make sure that it's not friendlies, that's all.
LAVANDERA: Schmidt holds fire. For the next 80 seconds, the pilots continue seeing tracer rounds. A military review found the pilots should have climbed to a higher altitude and left the area. Schmidt sensed deadly danger.
SCHMIDT: I've got some men on a road, and it looks like a piece of artillery firing at us. I am rolling in, in self-defense.
LAVANDERA: It takes 20 seconds for Schmidt to line up the target.
SCHMIDT: Bombs away, breaking left.
LAVANDERA: Another 20 second pass, and you see the laser-guided bomb strike the Canadian army unit, four men killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
LAVANDERA: Then 10 seconds later, the dreadful words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) disengage, friendlies (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
LAVANDERA: The pilots' attorneys say that information should have been passed along sooner.
CHARLES GITTINS, SCHMIDT'S ATTORNEY: That's the job of the command and control to push that information to pilots. They shouldn't have to call and try to figure out where the needle in the haystack is.
LAVANDERA: For the next several minutes, both pilots circle the area, trying to make sense of what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they were definitely shooting at you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sure seemed like they were tracking around and everything and trying to lead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a group of guys on a road around a gun, and it did not look organized like it would be our guys. I hope that was the right thing to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Of course, what we all know now is that the unit that was bombed there just outside of Kandahar was a Canadian army unit in a live-fire training exercise.
And what defense attorneys for the two pilots have been trying to do over the last couple of days is they have called to the stand, what we've heard from testimony, are the Canadian soldiers that survived the bombing, and they explained what they were using, the weaponry and ammunition that were being used in this live-fire training exercise. The point of all of this for defense attorneys is trying to establish why from thousands of feet above the ground using night-vision goggles at 2:00 in the morning, why the ammunition and the weaponry that was being used could have easily been mistaken for a fire-fight -- Bill.
HEMMER: Tough story. Ed Lavandera.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
