And while we wait to see the findings of those reports, we didn’t have to wait to hear form an airwing insider who was very concerned about the mysterious circumstances of the Huey helicopter’s last flight.
A soldier of unknown rank who works in the airing recorded a voice message which has been widely shared. Borland responded to it:
Voice of: Airwing soldier
"Guys, listen to me right, that flight for that chopper was not reported none at all. I worked the night when the plane landed. That chopper flew from the night when the plane landed. Nobody knew about it. Not even the watch keeper, not even me, not even operation Mr. Poc. Now, the thing that gets to me is that this morning Mr. Poc came to question me about that chopper, went through the sitrep book and he found no report about it. He wanted to put me on charge. I explained to him, sir, I know nothing about it. Now when we literally call across to air-wing, we found that that plane is flying from 2 o'clock in the morning."
Jules Vasquez
"It does appear to be an authentic message from someone who works at the air-wing. What is your response to the allegations on this that it was sort of a phantom mission they were on?"
Admiral John Borland- Chief Defense Staff
"It doesn't seem to be a phantom mission from the investigation so far. It seems to have been an authorized mission. The young man in that interview, if he is whom he says he is, will be interviewed as well."
Jules Vasquez
"The persistent reports that I received and I received at the time, was that the chopper was in the air from 2 am and you know, the narrative from the BDF has been that it took off at 4 am and it was last seen at 4:30. Is there anymore clarity on this?"
Admiral John Borland
"No, unfortunately, that is still as much as I know at this point. That the aircraft was being prepared, they did their starting up routine, they did their test flights, the aircraft was in the air at 2 o clock but it did not deploy on the mission until around sometime around 4 o clock. I heard that story, it is very compelling, it seems very convincing but for now we have to stick to the evidence and to the facts that we have collected."
Jules Vasquez
"There are some obviously very specific misgivings about the timeline, in so far as, the time in which the aircraft was unaccounted for and that it didn't come to anyone's attention until Thursday night that it was placed unknown. Is there any information yet as to what exactly was the break down in the chain of command or the chain of communication?"
Admiral John Borland
"No, you see, that is what has to be established. But I do know, as you seem to allude to, that there is a communication schedule, that there is a schedule of flight plan that one would identify when an aircraft has missed a communication schedule, either to make a comms check or to make a situation report and then for a period of time to elapse when that aircraft will be identified based on the flight plan as an aircraft overdue."
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