Piotr Skut

Piotr Skut
Passport
Rank:	Captain
Hair:	Blonde
Nationality:	Estonian
Occupation:	Pilot
Status:	Alive
First Appearance:	The Red Sea Sharks
Last Appearance:	Flight 714

Piotr Skut (French: Piotr Szut) is an eyepatch-wearing Estonian pilot who is friendly with Captain Haddock and Tintin after they saved his life in the Red Sea.

History

The Red Sea Sharks

Piotr Skut, originally from Estonia, learned to fly aeroplanes in his youth. Skut flies one of the Mosquito planes used by Sheik Bab El Ehr to seize power in Khemed, and his squad strafes the boat Tintin and Captain Haddock are crossing the Red Sea on. Tintin shoots down his plane with an assault rifle in self-defence, but later rescues him from the waters and Skut ends up marooned with the pair on a hastily-assembled life raft. Grateful for this treatment, Skut becomes a faithful friend and later refuses to betray Tintin and Haddock, instead sharing the rest of the adventure with them. He repairs the sabotaged radio of Ramona and calls for help, just in time to save the boat from a submarine attack.

Due to the adaptions being done out of order, the 90s animated version has Tintin know Skut already (as Flight 714 was adapted first). However, in this, he still knows Skut, as per the original album, so Skut is never introduced to Tintin, but known from some 'unknown' adventure.

Flight 714

Later, Skut became a private jet captain for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and gets hijacked by his own temporary crew, being held hostage with the other passengers, which include his boss, Gino, Cuthbert Calculus, Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy. After the hijackers land the plane on the Sondonesian island of Pulau-Pulau Bomba, Skut and others are locked away in an abandoned Japanese bunker (save for Carreidas, who is brought to another bunker for interrogation by Rastapopulous and Doctor Krollspell). However, Snowy is able to free them and they manage to surprise their captors and capture them. Skut, along with Gino and Professor Calculus, hold the Sondonesians captive whilst Tintin and Haddock thwart Rastapopolous' schemes.

Eventually, they are telepathically contacted by Mik Kanrokitoff, who orders them to leave behind their captives and regroup with the others inside the volcano temple. However, the volcano begins to erupt as a result of Rastapopulous and his men detonating dynamite within the temple. Skut and the others reach the crater of the volcano, where they are hypnotized by Kanrokitoff. They all board a UFO, where Kanrokitoff alters their memories to completely forget about the entire hijacking and the island. Afterwards, they are dropped off at the jet's rubber dinghy, which was being used by Rastapopulous and his men to escape, who are then hypnotized and brought into the UFO. After Skut and the others are in the dinghy, the UFO leaves with the gangsters and Krollspell to an unknown fate, though Krollspell is later dropped of back at Cairo by the UFO.

The next morning, Skut and the others are rescued by two pilots and their Boeing 707, who were observing the aftermath of the volcano's eruption and are brought back to Jakarta.

Skut as seen in the book series

Name

"Skut" is pronounced "scoot" (IPA: [skuːt]). Neither Piotr, Skut nor Szut are plausible Estonian names, but Skut was rather an excuse for a gag, as when they first meet, Captain Haddock believes Skut is telling him to "scoot" rather than introducing himself. In the original French, the Captain mistakes the name "Szut" for "zut," the French exclamation of frustration.

Trivia

• In the German version of the The Red Sea Sharks, 'Kohle an Bord' (coal on board), Piotr is from Latvia, not from Estonia.