IAF helicopter pilot recounts pulling friends' bodies from wreckage of Romania crash

"One moment I was busy improving my flying skills and developing new abilities and the next moment I needed to rescue my friends," said an IAF helicopter pilot who participated in Monday's joint training exercise in Romania during which six IAF servicemen and a Romanian liaison officer when their CH-53 helicopter crashed.

The pilot participated in the search and rescue efforts, which he called "extremely complicated", due to unfamiliar geographic features, constantly changing harsh weather conditions and cooperation with a foreign military.

The pilot said that landing his helicopter in the deep canyon about a kilometer and a half from where the wreckage and bodies were located "required all of my abilities as a pilot."

The search and rescue efforts were "very difficult" but also necessary "because of the tremendously important understanding with our families, to bring our friends home," he said.

The pilot flew one of the six IAF helicopters that took part in Monday's exercise. He said that when contact was lost in the clouds with the doomed helicopter, he did not at first believe there had been an accident.

"I didn’t think of the worst case scenario," he said.

	Rescue workers searching the area where an IAF helicopter carrying 6 Israelis and one Romanian crashed on July 26, 2010.
	Photo by: AFP