Author Mitch Albom, volunteers airlifted out of Haiti amid government collapse: 'It's madness'

When chaos and violence once again engulfed Haiti after its government collapsed, best-selling author Mitch Albom, his wife Janine and eight volunteers were faced with the daunting question of how to get home.

Amid rampant gang violence and fierce unrest, Albom and the others were airlifted from Haiti on Tuesday night in an effort spearheaded by Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla.

"Our group was ten, and we raced into this helicopter in the dead of night, because the gangs will shoot at helicopters, and you have to go at night," Albom said on "The Brian Kilmeade Show" Wednesday.

"The ten of us were shoved into this helicopter that had four seats in it. And so we were basically just a ball of people. It was right out of one of those movies, you know, go, go, go, go. And you're in, and you're up, and you're flying out."

US DEPLOYS MARINE ANTI-TERRORISM UNIT TO HAITI TO PROTECT EMBASSY

Albom and the nine other volunteers were in Port-au-Prince for his regular visit to a local orphanage run by his charity Have Faith Haiti when the current crisis broke out last week.

"[The last few days have been] crazier than even normal stuff in Haiti," Albom said. "As soon as we got down there, the gangs started breaking into prisons and releasing all the prisoners. And next thing you know, the airports were shut, the ports were shut, the roads were shut, the borders were shut, and there was no way out."

"We spent the eight days that we were kind of captive there, stocking up on food and on water, trying to get black market fuel. Because it's quite possible that, with the government gone, everything could fall into chaos there, and then you can't get anything. And so we stocked up with hopefully a month's worth of