Chopper pilot recalls Brian Williams’ 2003 inaccuracy
NEW YORK: The Iraq War chopper pilot whose aircraft flew ahead of the one Brian Williams rode in says he contacted NBC a decade ago about inaccuracies in Williams’ accounts of the episode.
Don Helus told CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday that the helicopter he piloted in 2003 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Williams was not on the flight, he said.
When Mr Helus returned to Kuwait for repairs on his chopper, he saw an MSNBC video interview with Williams in which the newsman said the chopper he had been in had been hit by an RPG.
Mr Helus t old Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter that he contacted MSNBC, which then was NBC’s main internet presence, “just to alert them that the facts were incorrect”, Mr Helus said. “Mr Williams was not part of our flights. He was in a different flight.”
Mr Helus said he never heard back from MSNBC or NBC.
On Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News broadcast, the anchor recanted his story about being in a helicopter in Iraq that was hit by enemy fire and forced to land. He had told the 2003 story the week before at a New York Rangers game with a soldier who had been part of the convoy of military helicopters.
“I said I was travelling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft,” he said on Wednesday. “We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two nights in the Iraq desert.”
After NBC News announced it would begin an internal investigation over Williams’ account, the anchor said he will step down temporarily to avoid becoming a distraction. NBC Nightly News weekend anchor Lester Holt will fill in for Williams.
Questions have also arisen about Williams’ accounts from his coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In an interview in 2006 with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Williams said he watched a body floating in the French Quarter. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director for New Orleans, said there were no bodies in the Quarter.