AI can't fly planes in this mission, as far as I know. There are different setting in the control options, allowing you to change how planes handle. The original stock settings didn't work well for me and the alternate settings did work fine. I would suggest you try the different setting and see if it makes a difference.
Also having Nick Rye help you makes the game easier, and you don't actually have to fly combat, you could jump out after trigging the mission and using a rocket launcher or heavy gun to shoot him down.
But generally speaking, I found using the alternate control scheme and Rye make wrath pretty easy.