On February 17, 1974, the group she was assigned to had an encounter with Rhodesian Forces and scattered, leaving Mujuru to her own devices. She stumbled over a wounded colleague, who gave her his gun and told her to run. She recalled: "A helicopter crew saw me. They were coming down for me and I fired. Incredibly, I hit the machine and there was a lot of black smoke and it crashed. A big explosion followed.”