Another video from the past of embattled NBC anchor Brian Williams. In 2007, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor recounted another version of his helicopter ride in Iraq in 2003, saying he “looked down the barrel of an RPG.”
In the video, Mr. Williams tells Fairfield University reporter Emily Fitzmaurice about the close calls he has had as a reporter, including the incident in 2003.
“I’ve been very, very lucky the way my life has turned out. I’ve been very lucky to have survived a few things that I’ve been involved in,” Mr. Williams said in the video posted by Hot Air. “At a reception a few minutes ago, I was remembering – I tend to forget the way with Hezbollah in Israel a few years back, where there were Katyusha rockets passing just underneath the helicopter I was riding. A few years before that, we go back to Iraq, and I look down the tube of an RPG that had been fired at us, and it hit the chopper in front of ours. And I’m so fortunate to be sitting here.”
In this version of the story, Mr. Williams says that the RPG hit the helicopter in front of his rather than his own, Hotair reported Saturday. The video was originally found by a Twitter user from Florida who goes by “Nied’s Dead Horse.”
Mr. Williams came under fire this week after crew members of the Chinook helicopter in question told Stars and Stripes that Mr. Williams was not on the aircraft that was forced to make an emergency landing after taking enemy fire in 2003. Rather, the news anchor was riding on another chopper that followed almost an hour behind.
NBC is reportedly launching an internal investigation into Mr. Williams reporting of the incident and may also scrutinize other tall tales from the reporter, including his reporting from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Williams had reported that he saw a dead body float past his French Quarter hotel, but new reports debunked the story, saying the area never flooded.
SEE ALSO: NBC to launch Brian Williams investigation: report
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.