A-10 Pilot Gets Hit Bad Over Baghdad–Switches To Manual To Survive

Doesn’t Get Any More Badass Than That.

Although this is not news, many people don’t know this actually happened and let us tell you, it’s pretty epic in nature. It shows not only the resilience of our pilots, but also the unbeatable nature of the Warthog.

We were just browsing the web for some cool aviation stuff and stumbled upon this gem in the rough. The ingredients of this story include, Baghdad, our beloved CAS platform the A-10 Thunderbolt II and a female pilot who was one of the only ones in history to get back to base in such bad shape.

Air Force Captain Kim Nichole Reed-Campbell flew over an hour in her injured plane, having to land it with no speed brakes, brakes or steering.

The year was 2003. Pilot Kim “Killer Chick” Campbell was flying a mission over Baghdad on April 7th when she got hit with AA fire. He plane went into a nosedive, her controls not responding to any input. Knowing that Baghdad was the last place she would want to eject over, she switched over to manual controls.

A-10s, as most of you know, have a redundant, armor shielded flight control system. When “Killer Chick” got shot up, her hydraulic systems went out which is why she lost all control of her plane. By switching to the manual flight, she was able to control her plane by literally pulling wires connected to some of her control surfaces. Only a handful of pilots ever had to revert to that to make it back alive.

This video is a news clip of the whole incident. Listen to what she has to say about her experience. It’s really an impressive feat.

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