Discover the true stories of Black Hawk Down survivors and how Somali citizens remember the 1993 battle that changed history. Watch Netflix’s documentary.
In 1993, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Mogadishu. An intense 18-hour battle followed. Eighteen American soldiers died. Over 300 Somalis lost their lives. The battle changed history. The movie Black Hawk Down is based on this real event. Survivors have shared their true stories.
Netflix’s Surviving Black Hawk Down was released on Feb. 10. The documentary gives survivors a voice. Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant was captured. “They chained me up,” he recalled. He thought death was near.
On Oct. 3, 1993, a U.S. task force entered Mogadishu. Their mission was to capture two Somali National Alliance leaders. The United Nations blamed these leaders for an ambush. That attack had killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
What seemed like a quick mission turned into chaos. Eighteen U.S. soldiers died. Eighty-four were wounded. Somali leaders said 312 militiamen and citizens died. Around 814 others suffered injuries.
Netflix’s Surviving Black Hawk Down features real testimonials. Soldiers, civilians, and former enemies share their experiences. Now, where are the survivors today? Here’s everything we know about them.
The 1993 Battle of Mogadishu was a deadly fight. People also call it the Black Hawk Down incident. The U.S. military went to Somalia. Their mission was to capture top leaders of Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s group.
They expected a quick mission. But everything went wrong. Somali fighters shot down two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters. The soldiers inside were trapped. U.S. forces rushed to save them. A fierce 18-hour battle began.
The American soldiers were surrounded. They faced heavy gunfire. Somali fighters outnumbered them. Civilians were caught in the crossfire. The battle ended with heavy losses. Eighteen American soldiers died. Hundreds of Somalis were killed. Many more were injured.
Author Mark Bowden wrote about this battle. His 1999 book, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, became famous. Director Ridley Scott turned it into a 2001 film. Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor starred. The movie won two Academy Awards.
Mohamed Farrah Aidid was a Somali military officer. In the early 1990s, he helped remove dictator Mohamed Siad Barre from power. After that, Somalia fell into a civil war. Rival groups fought to control the country.
Aidid led one of these groups, the Somali National Alliance (SNA). The United Nations blamed Aidid for violent attacks. One major attack happened in June 1993. His forces ambushed Pakistani peacekeepers. Many soldiers died.
The U.N. and the U.S. decided to target Aidid. They said they wanted to bring democracy to Somalia. One mission led to the Black Hawk Down incident. U.S. troops planned to capture two of Aidid’s top men. They received intelligence about a meeting in Mogadishu.
They sent soldiers and helicopters. But Somali fighters shot down two Black Hawk helicopters. A brutal 18-hour battle followed. Many soldiers died. Aidid survived this battle. He remained in power. In 1996, he suffered a heart attack and died.
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Michael Durant was a U.S. Army pilot. He flew one of the Black Hawk helicopters shot down by Somali fighters. He survived the crash. He fought on the ground with Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon.
The battle became more intense. Both soldiers died while defending Durant. Somali fighters captured him. He remained a prisoner for 11 days. Aidid later agreed to release him.
Durant suffered serious injuries. He had a gunshot wound. His leg, back, and eye socket were broken. His captors gave him medical care. When released, he was handed over to American soldiers. Doctors said he would fully recover.
The 2001 film Black Hawk Down told his story. Actor Ron Eldard played Durant in the movie.
Eighteen U.S. soldiers died in the Battle of Mogadishu. Many more were injured. Delta Force veteran Tom Satterly shared his experience in Surviving Black Hawk Down.
He described the chaos. “The heat hits you. You’re sweating. Sand sticks to everything. Everybody’s against us,” he said. He believed in his mission. “We’re the good guys. We’re America. We wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t right.”
The battle was brutal. Eighty-four U.S. soldiers suffered injuries. The experience changed their lives forever.
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The Black Hawk Down incident caused heavy Somali casualties. Leaders first estimated that 312 people died. Later, Mark Bowden reported a higher number. He wrote that over 500 Somalis had been killed. More than 800 others suffered injuries.
Binti Ali Wardhere shared her painful experience. In Surviving Black Hawk Down, she told BBC about the attack. A shell hit her house and partially severed her hand. Her husband, Mohamed Aden, died in the battle. Two of her sons, Abdulkadir and Abdurahman, were also killed. Four of her other children suffered injuries. One of them lost his sight forever.
Binti blamed American forces. “They destroyed my house. They killed my husband, my two sons, and my brother. They left my family in misery,” she said. She demanded justice. “At the very least, they must admit what they have done and compensate us.”
Cameraman Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, also called Ahmed Five, documented the battle. He recorded the destruction in Mogadishu. His footage helped people outside Somalia see the impact of the mission. The images sparked criticism of U.S. involvement.
Ahmed later spoke about Surviving Black Hawk Down. He told BBC, “This time, Somalis had the chance to share their story. It is crucial to tell both sides.” His work gave Somali voices a platform. Many believed their side had been ignored for too long.
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Newly elected President Bill Clinton ordered U.S. troops to leave Somalia by 1994. But the civil war in Somalia continued for decades. Smithsonian Magazine reported this.
Maj. Gen. William Garrison accepted full responsibility for the incident. He wrote a letter to President Clinton. The New York Times reported this. His military career ended after that. He retired in 1996. He moved to a farm in Hico, Texas. The Daily Beast said he never gave an interview about the battle.
Many surviving U.S. soldiers continued serving in the Army. Michael Durant flew more missions. He retired in 2001. Later, he became the CEO of an aviation training company. In 2022, he ran for the U.S. Senate in Alabama. He sought the Republican nomination but lost. ABC News reported this.
Other veterans chose different careers. Tom Satterly started a nonprofit to help Special Operations soldiers and their families. Brad Thomas became a musician. He plays guitar and writes songs for a grunge band called Silence & Light.
Larry Perino now works as an associate vice president at Navy Federal Credit Union. Despite moving forward, they still struggle. The soldiers in Surviving Black Hawk Down shared their battles with trauma. The violence they saw still affects them.
David Diemer, a former Army Ranger, spoke about this. He now owns a security company. “You gotta separate it in your mind,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe someday I’ll go crazy. I have no idea. But you know, it was my job.”
Former Somali militia members felt the same way. But for them, the loss felt even worse. “For Americans, October 3rd is tragic,” said Yasin Dheere. He was a member of the Aidid militia. “For us, it was a dark moment.”
He still struggles with the memories. “When I think about it, my head starts hurting,” he said. “It left me with a grudge and pain.” Mogadishu residents also still suffer from the battle’s effects.
“Dying is one thing,” said Binti Adan in Surviving Black Hawk Down. “But my daughter being blind hurts my stomach. She lost her home in the battle. It was just a battlefield to them,” she said. “It was a home to me.”
The 1993 battle, also called Black Hawk Down, was an 18-hour fight after Somali fighters shot down two U.S. helicopters. Eighteen U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somalis died.
Aidid was a Somali warlord leading the Somali National Alliance. He was targeted by the U.S. for attacks on peacekeepers and died in 1996 after a heart attack.
Durant, a U.S. pilot, was captured after his Black Hawk was shot down. He was held for 11 days before being released and later retired in 2001.
Eighteen U.S. soldiers and over 500 Somalis died, with more than 800 others injured in the intense urban battle.
Game of Thrones Star Sophie Turner confessed about returning in a GOT Sequel as she is the only performer who is happy with season 8 ending
Sophie Turner, who grew up on screen as Sansa Stark, recently confessed she felt like she was “one of the only” performers happy with her ending. Her point of view gives a fascinating look into why the finale worked for the Queen in the North, but froze pretty much everyone else.
HBO has also released its Game of Thrones production calendar for years to come, with content scheduled yearly until 2028, including additional seasons of House of the Dragon and Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
To know why Turner was happy, you have to see where Sansa started. She was just a pawn — a naive girl hoping for a fairytale wedding in the viper pit of King’s Landing. She was battered, bartered and brainwashed over eight seasons.
For Turner, Sansa’s ending wasn’t about power; it was about safety. The actress has stated that
Sansa ceased wanting that throne once she saw the poison that came with it. Her journey was about taking back her home, not taking over the world.
One moment in the finale that stuck out for Turner was when Sansa interrupts her uncle Edmure with a biting “Uncle, please sit down,” that moment was a standout for Turner. It was a woman who was finished with the posturing of men who played war games as her people starved and froze. Sansa winning Northern independence made sense. It was, as Turner said, “earned.”
However, Turner’s happiness makes the desperation of the other characters quite serious. If Sansa’s outcome was a straight line, everyone else’s was a scribble.
The most heartbreaking response belongs to Emilia Clarke. When she was handed the scripts at Heathrow airport, she didn’t just read them but she went into a crisis. Clarke remembers walking around London for five hours –
“I had blisters on my feet”
— Clarke said
She also acknowledged that her character, a feminist icon and liberator, could become a genocidal tyrant within just a couple of episodes is a shock. Clarke’s fear extended beyond the character herself to the fans (and icons like Beyoncé) who find inspiration and strength in Daenerys.
Then there was Conleth Hill (Varys). Through the documentary The Last Watch you can track the moment his soul seems to vacate his body. Varys, the Master of Whispers, was executed for a botched, brazen betrayal that ran counter to his character’s intelligence. Hill confessed to being “inconsolable”, as he thought his character had been made “peripheral” and dumb.
Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) didn’t feel pride when he read that Bran would become King, he thought it was a prank. He genuinely believed that showrunners had sent fake scripts to everyone in which the characters each took the throne to see who would leak it. That response is indicative of the confusion among the audience – if the actor believes it’s a joke, the story build-up clearly wasn’t there.
Kit Harington (Jon Snow) has admitted that the cast was “f—ing exhausted.” The final season was 11 months in the making. The “Long Night” battle required 55 nights of shooting in a row in freezing mud. When all was said and done, the actors were physically and emotionally drained. They did not have the strength to question character logic, they just wanted to make it out of production.
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The Direct had the chance to talk to Sophie Turner while on a press tour for Amazon Prime Video’s Steal, and of course, the subject of Game of Thrones came up. When asked if she would be interested in reprising her role as Sansa Stark in an HBO sequel, Turner was torn, commenting on how it “would be really hard but also incredible:”
Sophie Turner’s satisfaction is valid because Sansa’s storyline’s one of the few that endures scrutiny of her choices. But her confession that “nobody else was really happy” just confirms what we have all suspected. The Game of Thrones cast didn’t blow us away in the finale – they left us utterly split, the audience confused, and a Queen in the North who is definitely feeling herself.
Turner didn’t rule out a return in an HBO follow-up at all, by telling she’d have to read the script before making any decisions.
“Coming back could be either a really joyful thing or you’re trying to recapture something special that maybe isn’t there to be recaptured — and for me, that all comes down to the strength of the script,”
—she said.
The contrast is stark. The Starks “won”—Sansa got the North, Arya got freedom, Bran got the world but morally ambiguous characters like Jaime Lannister and Daenerys were reduced to tropes. Seasoned actors like Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) waited on the sidelines, bewildered as the show’s intricate political chess became checkers.
Sophie Turner’s satisfaction was never about being first but it was about what makes the best storytelling. Sansa Stark was all about survival, evolving and steely resilience. She wasn’t after glory, she reclaimed her home. Then she was Queen in the North, the ending felt earned.
That much clarity simply highlighted how inconsistent the rest of the finale was. Daenerys’ precipitous descent, Varys’ errors in judgment, Bran’s meteoric ascent, and Jon Snow’s impasse as a romantic lead left not just fans, but actors, discombobulated.
Game of Thrones didn’t collapse — it broke. And in that broken ending, Sansa Stark was still one of the few characters whose story actually made sense.
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Netflix’s Missing You (2025) is a gripping mystery thriller based on Harlan Coben’s novel, packed with secrets, shocking twists, and deep conspiracies.
Netflix’s Missing You is not just another mystery thriller. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. This five-episode series is based on Harlan Coben’s 2014 novel. It is packed with secrets, old romances, and dark conspiracies.
The show has a fresh UK setting and a talented cast. The shocking twists will leave you speechless. Missing You proves Coben is the master of gripping Netflix dramas.
Detective Kat Donovan has lived with two painful mysteries for over ten years. Her father was murdered, and her fiancé, Josh, disappeared. She never found out why. One day, she swipes through a dating app. Suddenly, she sees Josh’s profile.
He looks exactly the same after 11 years. Kat needs answers. She searches for the truth. But this is bigger than Josh. The mystery connects to her father’s murder. A dangerous crime syndicate is involved. Secrets are everywhere. Kat must uncover the truth before it’s too late.
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If you have watched Stay Close, The Stranger, or Fool Me Once, you might expect a familiar story. But Missing You is different. This time, the story takes place in Manchester and the North West of England. The setting adds a British noir feel.
The show focuses on deep emotions. Kat’s struggles take center stage along with the mystery. Rosalind Eleazar delivers a strong performance. She shows both vulnerability and strength as Kat battles her past and present.
If you love mystery thrillers, Missing You is a great choice. It has tension, emotions, and shocking twists. The story may not be Coben’s most unpredictable, but it delivers suspense and deep secrets.
Kat won’t let the past stay buried. She fights for the truth. Should you watch Missing You? Yes, if you enjoy slow-burning mysteries with big payoffs. Just be warned—you might not sleep much once you start watching.
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“Missing You” is a 2025 Netflix series based on the novel by Harlan Coben. It centers on Detective Kat Donovan, who is haunted by the disappearance of her fiancé, Josh, 11 years prior and the unsolved murder of her father.
When she unexpectedly sees Josh’s profile on a dating app, she uncovers deep secrets from her past. The series is a gripping mystery thriller in which Kat must navigate a web of suspicion to find answers about her loved ones’ missing cases.
Missing You is a 5-episode limited series available to stream on Netflix.
The series follows Detective Kat Donovan as she investigates her father’s murder and reconnects with her ex-fiancé via a dating app, uncovering secrets tied to disappearances and past betrayals.
Yes, Missing You premiered on January 1, 2025, with all episodes available on Netflix.
The series has been praised for its suspenseful twists and engaging mystery, though some viewers criticized its rushed conclusion. Fans of Harlan Coben’s thrillers may find it compelling.
