The Pilot-Thing was a Thing which assumed the form of an American helicopter pilot; part of a military team sent to investigate U.S. Outpost 31. The creature appeared in the 1991-92 comic-book The Thing from Another World.
History[]
The pilot of the helicopter sent to extract Les Erskine and his team was severely injured when the Pybus-Thing suddenly revealed itself and shot down the helicopter. Exactly how the pilot was infected is never explained in the comic.
Erskine and R.J. MacReady, the only two uninjured survivors of the Pybus-Thing's attack, carried the pilot (and a wounded squad member, who soon died of his injuries) through the ice fields, where they were eventually found by Childs and personnel from an Argentinian base. Childs and MacReady were subjected to a blood test, which they both passed, but when the pilot's turn came, he suddenly transformed before the test could even be attempted, and attacked those present in the base's medical bay. MacReady, Childs and Erskine were able to defend themselves, but the Argentine doctor was less fortunate; the Pilot-Thing ensnared him with its tentacles and began to assimilate him, before fleeing to a nearby ice field.
For some reason the Pilot-Thing abandoned its attempt to assimilate the doctor, leaving its mutilated remains on the surface of the ice and burrowing down into a chasm. Childs happened to stumble into this chasm just as the group was calling off their search, and before the Pilot-Thing could attempt to assimilate him, he was able to destroy it with a grenade.