By Daniel Bates
It is the horrific moment an Afghan man is blown apart by a US missile. But in a moment of twisted inspiration an American helicopter pilot decided to give it a impromptu soundtrack – by singing ‘Bye, bye Miss American pie.’ He belted out the most famous line of the Don McLean classic at the moment of impact when a fireball consumed at least one man.
Explosion: The missile hit was recorded on camera, along with the pilot’s cheerful rendition of American Pie’
Targets: The two white subjects in the middle of the road are the Afghan killed by the attack helicopter. The video’s poster claims they were farmers, but there is nothing to substantiate this
The video on LiveLeak.com appears to be from an on-board camera of a pilot from the 101st Airborne Division in an AH64 Apache helicopter.
According to the caption the victims were ‘innocent farms planting poppy seeds in the middle of the road,’ although that has not been verified. The weapon used on them was supposedly a one kilogram Hellfire missile.
The caption reads: ‘At the 01:39 mark you can hear the pilot singing ‘Bye Bye Ms. American Pie’ right before impact then BOOM….the rest is history.’ Another pilot can also be heard saying, ‘Nice’ moments after the impact.
Follow-up shots: The pilot uses his helicopter’s machine gun to try to kill two people who walked into the road to investigate the explosion, but the bullets miss
Two other men can then be seen running for their lives as the pilots shoot at them but miss.
The reaction on LiveLeak was one of disgust and Ozzieabroad wrote: ‘It’s disturbing and bordering on sanctioned psychopathy to enjoy killing so much’.
Based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the 101st Airborne Division became famous for their courage in World War II, the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War. Its pilots are among the most dedicated and decorated in the US military.