I just ran through the whole level....damn the others. I tried to help the others the first few times, but after getting raped consistently by the aliens and/or tornadoes, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and just made it a priority to get my ass back to the carrier.
WORST vehicle level ever. Whoever at crytek decided that flying something that handles like a brick against highly agile aliens and oppressive tornadoes is 'fun', needs to be banned from touching a computer for the rest of his life.