LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
We wanted to update you about a fellow journalist who's been in the news. Last Sunday, we talked to The New York Times reporter Alissa Rubin who was covering the Yazidi people trapped on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq. She talked about the effort to get food and water to them and about the Islamic State militant group that had driven the Yazidis out of their homes.
Just two days later, we heard that Alissa was in a helicopter crash in which the pilot was killed and she was seriously injured. She was on that same mountain to see the relief effort firsthand. Alissa is now recovering.
Yesterday, she dictated a story for the Times' website. I heard myself groan like everybody else, she says, at least I'm alive. I bet a lot of them are not. How is the pilot? Did he make it? He just wanted to help. General Majid Ahmed Saadi did not survive the crash. He had taken time off from his job in the Iraqi Air Force to join the relief effort. He told Alissa Rubin it was the most important thing he had done in his life. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.