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CNN Sunday Morning

Veteran French Reporter Dies After Being Hit by U.S. Tank

Aired December 22, 2002 - 07:02   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In northern Kuwait, a fatality has marred the second day of U.S. military war games in the desert. A veteran French war reporter has died a day after being hit by a U.S. tank.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote has an update. He's a -- in Kuwait city. Hello, Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. Well, Patrick Bourrat was an extremely well known French television journalist. He was out there covering those exercises, when as you said, he was hit by a tank. Actually, he was near an obstacle on the battle field. He was concerned about his cameraman. He thought that his cameraman might get hit by one of the tanks. He rushed towards his cameraman, when he himself got hit by a tank. They air-lifted him out. They knew he had some chest injuries, but they hoped he was going to be OK. Tragically he passed away in the early hours of the morning here in Kuwait.

Now, these were some of the largest, or these were the largest live fire exercises in the Persian Gulf since the Gulf War. Some 4,000 U.S. troops out there just next to the Iraqi border, and some 150 armored vehicles, obviously a lot of moving parts. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Ryan, you've been in all kinds of war zones, from Chechnya, to Afghanistan. What are the rules of the road, so to speak, in those situations, when reporters get close to tanks you have to be very careful, don't you?

CHILCOTE: Sure. I mean, you wear a helmet, you wear a flack jacket, but obviously those things aren't going to protect you from a moving tank, so you first and foremost try and keep track of your surroundings, where you are, try and watch what's going on. But obviously there a lot of adrenalin in your veins there, you're seeing tanks moving around, and it's difficult to keep track. It's an inherently dangerous job -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Other than that, how did those war games seem to go? Were you able to make a pretty good assessment?

CHILCOTE: Well, actually, we were part of the journalists that were brought in for that day. We were pretty far away, but it did look like the military that was out there were moving in a very synchronized fashion. That was the goal of the operation, really was to give the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division an opportunity to move all of his parts out in the field, the practice moving all of those -- all of those vehicles, all of those troops, should there be some kind of military action in Iraq -- it looked like it was going OK, but obviously this tragedy did happen -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Ryan Chilcote in Kuwait City, thanks very much.

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Aired December 22, 2002 - 07:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In northern Kuwait, a fatality has marred the second day of U.S. military war games in the desert. A veteran French war reporter has died a day after being hit by a U.S. tank.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote has an update. He's a -- in Kuwait city. Hello, Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. Well, Patrick Bourrat was an extremely well known French television journalist. He was out there covering those exercises, when as you said, he was hit by a tank. Actually, he was near an obstacle on the battle field. He was concerned about his cameraman. He thought that his cameraman might get hit by one of the tanks. He rushed towards his cameraman, when he himself got hit by a tank. They air-lifted him out. They knew he had some chest injuries, but they hoped he was going to be OK. Tragically he passed away in the early hours of the morning here in Kuwait.

Now, these were some of the largest, or these were the largest live fire exercises in the Persian Gulf since the Gulf War. Some 4,000 U.S. troops out there just next to the Iraqi border, and some 150 armored vehicles, obviously a lot of moving parts. Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Ryan, you've been in all kinds of war zones, from Chechnya, to Afghanistan. What are the rules of the road, so to speak, in those situations, when reporters get close to tanks you have to be very careful, don't you?

CHILCOTE: Sure. I mean, you wear a helmet, you wear a flack jacket, but obviously those things aren't going to protect you from a moving tank, so you first and foremost try and keep track of your surroundings, where you are, try and watch what's going on. But obviously there a lot of adrenalin in your veins there, you're seeing tanks moving around, and it's difficult to keep track. It's an inherently dangerous job -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Other than that, how did those war games seem to go? Were you able to make a pretty good assessment?

CHILCOTE: Well, actually, we were part of the journalists that were brought in for that day. We were pretty far away, but it did look like the military that was out there were moving in a very synchronized fashion. That was the goal of the operation, really was to give the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division an opportunity to move all of his parts out in the field, the practice moving all of those -- all of those vehicles, all of those troops, should there be some kind of military action in Iraq -- it looked like it was going OK, but obviously this tragedy did happen -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Ryan Chilcote in Kuwait City, thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com