Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Posted Image
Welcome to Nexus Trek

We are a message board community filled with members from several different Star Trek
sites. Come talk about Trek, other Sci Fi or whatever interests you!

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board
and cannot join in on the fun. Registering will only take a minute and once approved you can

  • customize your profile
  • Send personal messages
  • Vote in polls
  • Start and post in topics

Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!
If you have any trouble registering please email us @ nexustrek@yahoo.com


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
News Helicopters Collide over Phoenix: 4 dead
Topic Started: Jul 27 2007, 09:37 PM (946 Views)
GCE-1701-D
Member Avatar
aka GalaxyClassUSSEnterpriseNCC1701D But my friends call me Darren
I'm surprised no one's mentioned this here yet... here's a generic AP version of the story

Quote:
 
PHOENIX (Associated Press) --  Two news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided and crashed to the ground Friday, killing all four people on board in a plunge that viewers saw as a jumble of spinning, broken images.

Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt.

TV viewers did not actually witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground. But they saw video from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio.

Television station KNXV reported that it operated one of the choppers. The other was from KTVK. A pilot and photographer aboard each chopper were killed.

KNXV reporter Craig Smith, who was among the dead, was reporting live as police chased a man driving a construction truck who had fled a traffic stop. The man was driving erratically, hitting several cars and driving on the sidewalk at times.

Police had blown the truck's tires, and the man eventually parked it, then carjacked another vehicle nearby.

Just before the picture broke up, Smith said, "Oh geez!"

The station then switched to the studio and briefly showed regular programming, a soap opera, before announcing that the helicopter had crashed.

The man fleeing from police was later taken into custody by a SWAT team after barricading himself inside a house, police said. Police Chief Jack Harris suggested he could be charged in connection with the collision.

"I believe you will want to talk to investigators, but I think he will be held responsible for any of the deaths from this tragedy," Harris told reporters at the scene. He did not elaborate.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene Friday and more were on their way from out of state, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter said.

The two choppers came down on the grass lawn in front of a boarded-up church at the park. Firefighters swarmed to the area as thick black smoke rose from the scene.

Rick Gotchie, an air conditioning contractor, was working nearby when he noticed the helicopters overhead. He said they began circling closer as he continued watching, and one appeared to get too close to the other.

"I kept saying 'Go lower, go lower,' but he didn't," Gotchie said. "It was like a vacuum. They just got sucked into each other, and they both exploded and pieces were flying everywhere."

He said he ran to the crash site, but "no one got out."

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilots of the five news helicopters and one police chopper over the chase were not talking to air traffic controllers at the time, which is normal.

"Typically air traffic controllers clear helicopters into an area where they can cover a chase like this," Gregor said. "Once they are in the area, the pilots themselves are responsible for keeping themselves separated from other aircraft."

Pilots generally use a dedicated radio frequency to talk to each other and maintain their positions, Gregor said.

"There is a high degree of coordination," Gregor said. "To fly for a TV station you have to have a commercial rating, which means more (flight hours), more training."

Gregor said the FAA has not had major safety problems with news chopper operations. "This hasn't been a problem; there hasn't been a trend or a series of issues involving TV helicopters," he said.

Keith McCutchen, a past president of the National Broadcast Pilots Association and a news pilot for 11 years in Indianapolis, said pilot awareness is vital while on the scene of a story because of the many distractions that could spell trouble.

"You are watching the scene. You have to bring your attention inside to look at the monitors to see what the audience is seeing so you can converse. But you're also having to direct your attention to the other aircraft flying around you.

"You have to have your head on a swivel in those kinds of situations," he said.

In Indianapolis, when news choppers descend on a story, they pick different altitudes and radio their positions to other pilots.

"I may be live on the air and one of the other guys may say, `Hey, I'm coming up on your left side,'" McCutchen said. "I'll break away from what I'm doing on the air and say, `Roger,' and then go back to talking."

Killed on board the KTVK chopper were pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox. Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were aboard the KNXV aircraft, the stations reported.

Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in Washington, said the group does not track fatalities among helicopter news pilots, but she could not recall another example of two news choppers colliding while covering a story.

"These pilots, they are very professional. They combine the skills of pilots and skills as journalists," she said.

Posted Image

source



it's very surreal, 3TVs been covering this thing for hours and hours, no comercial breaks, not regular programming, nothing but talking about the poor guys who died in the crash and every possible angle you can think of
the news anchors covering it were either choked up or actually crying off and on, and all the reporters and other photographers being interviewed (3TV was interviewing their own people) were breaking down as they talked about the two 3TV people

I guess it's getting alot of national coverage too
we want the old Kai! "bring sexy back, vote Classic Kai"

Posted Image


Posted Image
:whistle:
Offline
 
Root Admin
No Avatar
on leave

I watched it earlier on both local and national news. It's pretty sad indeed.
Offline
 
Kat
Member Avatar
more human than Human

I was outside eating lunch when it happened. The noise the crash made was unbelievable. I've been a little shocked about it since then. I'm just so amazed that they crashed over a park instead of a residential community. This is horrible news, but it could have been much worse....kids are home for summer vacation.
Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and make bad decisions.
Offline
 
GCE-1701-D
Member Avatar
aka GalaxyClassUSSEnterpriseNCC1701D But my friends call me Darren
I know, they could have slammed into a building or house, or anything really, but they both fell into the middle of the park so thankfully it wasn't worse than it was
we want the old Kai! "bring sexy back, vote Classic Kai"

Posted Image


Posted Image
:whistle:
Offline
 
Captain_Windu
Member Avatar
^^^^ Our Next Vice President
The crash from inside of 15's helicopter. (Just a warning, you can actually hear the pilot scream. Not a good watch for the squeamish.)

You can tell he knew something was wrong just before the feed went out. Too late to do anything about it.

From watching all the observations and what video there is, it looks like 15 ran into 3. 3 didn't even know what happened.
Posted Image
Offline
 
Almighty
Member Avatar
Give that Roo a beer

Just saw this on the news , pretty terrible stuff , but did i hear correct that the guy who was driving the car the reporters were chasing is getting charged in relation to this terrible accident ?

:wtf:
Posted Image


Offline
 
GCE-1701-D
Member Avatar
aka GalaxyClassUSSEnterpriseNCC1701D But my friends call me Darren
Almighty
Jul 28 2007, 02:39 AM
Just saw this on the news , pretty terrible stuff , but did i hear correct that the guy who was driving the car the reporters were chasing is getting charged in relation to this terrible accident ?

:wtf:

last I heard that is a possibility that they could charge him in some reguard to the crash

and I don't know the paint jobs of the helicopters, but I remember seeing a guy interviewed on channel 3 who said he saw a white helicopter stationary, and then a blue one swing around and hit the white one

so whichever of the two was blue on the underside was the channel's helicopter that swung around and somehow it's tail got too close to the other's and then the rest is history

just really aweful, that video is even worse if you listen to the last few seconds before the audio from the helicopter fades out :cry2:
we want the old Kai! "bring sexy back, vote Classic Kai"

Posted Image


Posted Image
:whistle:
Offline
 
AdmiralGummy
Unregistered

I saw this on CNN last night.
My sincerest condolences go out to the vicitim's families, colleagues, friends and to our friends in the Phoenix Area.
 
Kat
Member Avatar
more human than Human

Almighty
Jul 28 2007, 01:39 AM
Just saw this on the news , pretty terrible stuff , but did i hear correct that the guy who was driving the car the reporters were chasing is getting charged in relation to this terrible accident ?

:wtf:

That's a bunch of bullshit if they try that. I think its just the angry media speculating about shit they don't understand. They could charge him if his driving caused someone to die, or if it was a police helicopter that crashed because it was doing its duty by trailing the guy. But news helicopters are chasing him because they CHOOSE to do so. They are trying to get the story so they can boost their ratings. You can't charge the guy for that, its totally not his fault. Blame the news stations who send their guys out there, blame the dumbass pilot, but you can't blame the guy driving the car.
Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and make bad decisions.
Offline
 
AdmiralGummy
Unregistered

Kªi™
Jul 28 2007, 09:29 AM
Almighty
Jul 28 2007, 01:39 AM
Just saw this on the news , pretty terrible stuff , but did i hear correct that the guy who was driving the car the reporters were chasing is getting charged in relation to this terrible accident ?

:wtf:

That's a bunch of bullshit if they try that. I think its just the angry media speculating about shit they don't understand. They could charge him if his driving caused someone to die, or if it was a police helicopter that crashed because it was doing its duty by trailing the guy. But news helicopters are chasing him because they CHOOSE to do so. They are trying to get the story so they can boost their ratings. You can't charge the guy for that, its totally not his fault. Blame the news stations who send their guys out there, blame the dumbass pilot, but you can't blame the guy driving the car.

Agreed. If anyone is to blame here, it is the pilots who crashed, the driver on the ground had nothing to do with it.
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Learn More · Register Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · News, World Events, History · Next Topic »

Today's New Posts