Pilot Describes Copter Downing in North Korea

TAMPA, Fla. â€”  Two weeks after his U.S. Army helicopter dropped from the sky and into an international incident in North Korea, an emotional Bobby Hall flew home late Friday and offered his account of the Dec. 17 crash that led to his 13 days in captivity.

Met at MacDill Air Force Base here by his wife, two children and his parents, Chief Warrant Officer Hall, 28, in a quavering voice, read a statement describing the downing of his helicopter and the death of his co-pilot after the craft veered into the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.

His release to American officials Thursday defused a crisis that had threatened a pending nuclear agreement with North Korea and jeopardized a recent diplomatic thaw in relations on the volatile peninsula.

“I really don’t know how we ended up across the DMZ,� Hall said. “If I knew that, we wouldn’t have been there. I thought we were flying well south of the DMZ,� he said, describing the routine training mission in which he was instructing co-pilot David Hilemon, 29.

“The first time I knew something was wrong was when I heard a loud explosion and the windshield in front of us caved back in on us. Dave turned to me and said ‘Bobby, I’ve been hit.’ I turned to him and could see that he had been hit, and the only thing I could say was, ‘Are you OK?’ He never replied.�

Hall said that after the aircraft hit the ground, he saw that Hilemon had been thrown from the cockpit.

“He died at the crash site, and I was with him when he died,� Hall said.

He said he was immediately captured by North Korean military forces.

“I was very well-treated and I was very well-fed,� he said. “They were very concerned about my well-being.�

Pentagon officials said earlier Friday that Hall’s account supported the official U.S. view of the events--�he was lost and strayed unintentionally into North Korea,� as one official put it.

Pentagon officials said they believe Hall’s helicopter was probably shot down, although they do not so far have enough evidence to say so conclusively. Hilemon’s body was returned last week to his family in Washington state. Results of an autopsy will not be available for another two weeks, officials said.

After several tense days of negotiations between U.S. and North Korean officials over Hall’s release, Hall signed a statement, released by the North Koreans on Wednesday, acknowledging a “criminal action� by flying into their airspace. The statement was filled with other harsh language that led U.S. officials to believe that its aim was to demonstrate American transgressions. While that was clearly the North Koreans’ hope, Hall’s account suggested that the North Koreans finally gave up their attempts to get what they wanted.

Addressing a crowd of supporters and journalists on the air base Tarmac, the diminutive Hall looked overwhelmed, both by the events of the last 14 days and by the patriotic throng which greeted his homecoming.

*

Hall, a native of Brooksville, Fla., a town of 7,500 located 60 miles north of Tampa, was greeted at MacDill by two vanloads of family and neighbors.

Before Hall emerged from the military jet that landed at MacDill shortly after 11 p.m. EST, Hall’s wife, Donna, and their two children, Bryon, 9, and Brandon, 6, along with Hall’s parents, Bobby and Diane, boarded the plane for a private reunion.

In his public comments, Hall extented sympathy to Hilemon’s family and concluded by saying, that he “was looking forward to some family time,� and added “I hope to get back to my unit and back to flying.�

On his arrival home early today, Hall found the town decked with yellow ribbons, balloons and “Welcome Home Bobby!� signs. From his front porch, he thanked the community and his family for their support.

“I really appreciate it,� he said, smiling and waving to reporters and dozens of neighbors and well wishers who stayed up for his homecoming.

Earlier Friday, Pentagon officials had produced a chart showing navigational details of Hall’s flight over the 2,000-meter-wide demilitarized zone. The chart suggested that Hall veered from his course because he had mistaken a group of topographic features--rivers, roads and other terrain--for a spot referred to as Checkpoint 84.

Military officials have made no decision on whether to charge Hall for losing his way on what they have described as a routine mission. Senior military officials in Korea are conducting a fact-finding mission on his conduct, but it is unclear when they will offer their recommendations to Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.

Meanwhile, with Hall out of the North Koreans’ hands, U.S. officials were offering blunter assessments of what the North Korean regime had gained from holding Hall for nearly two weeks.

Winston Lord, assistant secretary of state, asserted that the North Koreans “didn’t achieve any of their objectives� with Hall’s detention. They wanted an official apology and to establish direct peace talks with the United States.

“None of these objective were achieved,� he said on the CBS “This Morning� program.

U.S. officials, who declared their “sincere regret� for the incident to gain Hall’s release, were more circumspect in their statements until he was freed.

Still unclear was how much Hall’s detention would cloud prospects for the $4-billion nuclear accord with North Korea, which comes to a vote in January in Congress. The complex deal would give North Koreans Western nuclear technology and a temporary fuel oil supply in exchange for giving up plutonium development and their nuclear weapons program.

While analysts from both political parties said they expect the Hall incident to raise new charges that the North Koreans cannot be trusted, most members who are criticizing the proposal are still not pledging outright opposition.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), hailing Hall’s return, stopped short of saying that he will oppose the accord. “Congress has a responsibility to determine if this deal, which includes legitimizing and providing assistance to the North Koreans, is in the best interests of the United States and the American people,� Dole said in a statement.

In South Korea, ambiguities in the agreement that led to Hall’s release provoked fears that the Pyongyang regime may manipulate the accord to its future benefit.

The Chosun Ilbo, a major Seoul-based newspaper, expressed concern in an editorial that U.S.-North Korean discussion of the prisoner issue “may infringe our sovereignty.�

“We have every right to be alerted,� the editorial said. “We suspect that the United States, having been obsessed with an early repatriation of Bobby Hall, may perhaps have made itself a weak negotiator.�

Concern in Seoul centers on U.S. agreement to try to avoid such incidents in the future through discussions in an “appropriate forum.� Many South Koreans fear that this may mean routine bilateral contacts between North Korean and U.S. military forces, a goal long sought by the North.

Ever since the 1950-53 Korean War, the Communist government in Pyongyang has sought to portray the key conflict on the Korean Peninsula as being between the North and the United States. This stance is intended to relegate South Koreans to the role of virtual colonial subjects of the United States, thereby shifting the diplomatic balance of power to the benefit of the North.

Richter, a Times staff writer, reported from Washington and Clary, a special correspondent, from Tampa. Times staff writer David Holley in Tokyo also contributed to this story.