Chopper pilot recalls Brian Williams' 2003 inaccuracy

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 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 a RPG.

Helus told Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter that he contacted MSNBC, which then was NBC's main Web presence, "just to alert them that the facts were incorrect," Helus said. "Mr. Williams was not part of our flights. He was in a different flight."

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 traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft," he said Wednesday. "We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert."

After NBC News announced Friday that it would begin an internal investigation over Williams' account, the anchor said Saturday that he will step down temporarily to avoid becoming a distraction. NBC Nightly News weekend anchor Lester Holt will fill in for Williams.

Williams also will skip an appearance that was planned for Thursday on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman.

On CNN's news show, Allan Kelly, another pilot, said Williams was a passenger on his chopper that day in 2003, and it was not attacked. When Stelter asked Kelly whether he was offended by Williams' embellishment, Kelly said, "I don't make any judgments on that. Everybody has to live with the life they choose to lead."

"If he made mistakes — I mean, we're all human," he said, according to a transcript on CNN.com. "But I make no judgments on him in that regard."

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, told USA TODAY there were no bodies in the Quarter.

As the brouhaha around Williams has grown, some have called for him to step down as anchor. Sunday, Newsday TV critic Verne Gay called for the NBC anchor to resign. "There is no way to contain the damage," he wrote.

That came two days after Joe Klein of Timeargued that the incident "should not imperil his distinguished career. His apology was not elegant, but it should be accepted."

Contributing: Gary Levin

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