I hope the old man crashes his plane.

So, I'm on the "Come fly with me" mission for the jackpot event, right? Can someone PLEASE tell me what they expect me to do about this old man being too stupid to understand "Running into enemy = death"? Istg I've restarted that wiest 10 times. I've tried spamming snowmen I had leftover, i tried spamming the EMBA plant things to literally BLOCK his exits, I've tried healing, and I've tried overt aggression to try and cull the enemies before they get their grubby hands on them. NOTHING is working.

Does ANYONE have advice? I'm lvl 75 and using the santa armor as it's my only option to not get evaporated with, yet I still can't keep this schizophrenic geezer from running butt-naked into bullets like a child in a landmine exhibition.