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CANBERRA - Australian soldiers and journalists have experienced a close call in Afghanistan when Taleban insurgents fired on their helicopter.
Television footage taken by a Nine Network cameraman aboard the helicopter shows what appears to be a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) missing the Chinook by some 20 metres.
A reporter, also on the aircraft, said he saw muzzle flashes from a small village as insurgents fired bursts from a heavy machine gun, possibly one of the widely used Soviet-made 12.7 DSHKs.
"There was a long series of bursts, three, four, five rounds each. He knew what he was doing. He worked us over," John Hunter Farrell said.
Mr Farrell said the helicopter had not been hit and others aboard were unaware of what was happening.
"I got out of the helicopter and said we were engaged by a heavy machine gun and they all made fun of me. They thought I was being silly," he said.
Mr Farrell, publisher of the Brisbane-based Australian and NZ Defender magazine, said he and two cameramen were at the rear of the Chinook helicopter which was travelling at low altitude between Tarin Khowt and Kandahar when the incident occurred.
Aboard were six members of the Australian media, the Australian aircrew plus Afghan and US soldiers. Accompanying them on the flight were a US Army Chinook and an Apache attack helicopter.
Mr Farrell said what had been identified as a RPG could have been a single machine gun tracer round.
He said he believed they came under intensive attack.
"If one person fired one RPG, it meant 30 people were firing Kalashnikovs as well," he said.
SBS reporter Karen Middleton said it seemed a rocket propelled grenade was fired at the helicopter.
"It missed, luckily. Looks like it missed by about 20 metres," she told ABC Radio.
"Nobody on the aircraft actually saw it happen and it seems nobody in the chinook behind us saw it happen either."
Ms Middleton said the Australian commander at Kandahar, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Humphreys, confirmed they had had a near miss.
"When we asked what would have happened if it had hit us, he said the aircraft would have exploded. We are all feeling a little bit like we have had a close call," she said.
- AAP
