Passenger Admits Lie in Reagan Incident

The passenger in a light plane that nearly collided with President Reagan’s helicopter said he and the pilot lied when they told authorities they had flown off course because the pilot had dropped his contact lenses, it was reported.

In an interview with The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash., Harlan L. Jones said the pilot, Ralph William Myers, asked him to tell authorities that his contact lens fell out because he was afraid he had violated the restricted airspace around the Reagan ranch in the mountains of Santa Barbara County.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get my ass chewed, so tell them my contact lenses fell out,’ ” Jones said. “And it was no big thing to me, so I said, ‘OK.’ ”

Myers did have a problem with contact lens irritation, Jones, a businessman from Lake Oswego, Ore., added.

Jones also denied that the plane he and Myers rented in Vancouver had flown too close to the President’s helicopter last Thursday. He said he and Myers had clearly seen the helicopter, dropped below it and banked away.

Authorities said the private plane came within 150 feet of Reagan’s helicopter. Jones said the plane never got closer than 500 feet.

“Bill (Myers) didn’t do a doggone thing wrong except violate that airspace,” Jones said, “because we didn’t know where that ranch was, or at least I didn’t.”

The Secret Service declined comment Tuesday on Jones’ comments.

The agency was expected to wind up its questioning of the pilot Tuesday afternoon, said Garry Jenkins, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Secret Service.

Myers, an AWOL private, was to be turned over to military authorities at the end of questioning. He could be returned by today to Ft. Lewis, Wash., where he was reported absent without leave on Aug. 3.

Jones has said he had asked Myers to fly him to California for a business meeting with a nephew of former President Richard Nixon and was not aware that the pilot was AWOL.