There is an autosave point when the helicopters appear at the hideout. The autosave occurs once Stavros is done talking. By this point, the helicopters are sometimes already at the hideout and are strafing the player. I have reached this point in the mission twice now and both times I have been trapped because there were projectiles in flight towards me during the autosave. The result is that I get caught in a die-reload-die loop and have to start over. (Since I'm playing on Veteran there is only one user save allowed, and without knowing how long the mission will be the I am reluctant to use it until it's too late).

This could be fixed by simply moving the autosave to before/just as the helicopters appear. This gives the player time to arm the explosives, reach a vehicle, etc. before the strafing run begins.