At least 3 dead in news helicopter(s) crash in Phoenix

Source: AP/KVOA News 4

At least 3 dead in news helicopter(s) crash in Phoenix

Associated Press - July 27, 2007 5:04 PM ET

PHOENIX (AP) - Two television helicopters collided in midair and crashed while covering a police pursuit in central Phoenix. Police Sergeant Joel Trantor say there were no suvivors.

KNXV-TV reported that 1 of the choppers belonged to the station. It said reporter-pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were aboard.

The other chopper was from KTVK TV. An anchor tearfully told viewers that the pilot and a photographer who were aboard were killed....

(edit)

...The helicopters were covering the police pursuit of a work truck. Just before the midair collision, the driver had jumped out of the nearly disabled flatbed pickup and carjacked another truck. News choppers from other television stations were also in the area.

(More)

Read more: http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6851201&nav=HMO6

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I feel sorry for the family of the people who just lost loved ones, but I should say that the coverage of high-speed police chases by Local TV "news" has just gotten out of control. This was type of crash was bound to happen sooner or later.

Source: KTLV website

2 Television Helicopters Collided In Midair Killing 3

PHOENIX (AP) - Two television helicopters collided in midair and crashed while covering a police pursuit in central Phoenix, killing three people.

KNXV-TV reported that 1 of the choppers belonged to the station. It said at least a pilot was aboard. - The other chopper was from KTVK TV. An anchor tearfully told viewers that the pilot and a photographer aboard were killed.



Read more: http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6851314&nav=menu117_3

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Local news reporting 4 dead.

Pointless and reckless endangerment. It is time for the FAA to look closely at tighter regulations for helicopters flying over metro areas. I'm just surprised this didn't happen in Atlanta first.

I'm not sure if the mean that they were all going to cover this Police chase (could have been "normal" traffic coverage), but I know for sure that at least 4 of them were covering this, because this report mentions "Fox 10" (Channel 10) being very close to the two that crashed.

<http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0727coptercrash27-ON.html>

before now. Yeah sometimes the video makes good footage, but IMHO it's mostly junk infotainment of no value to anyone.

I'm still trying to figure out how they could have gotten so close to one another. They have to know there are other craft in the area following the same news, don't they? Are there no controls at all?

One of those killed was a former Detroit heli-newsguy, Craig Smith. He was here for ten years (he went to AZ a few years ago). He was always a really great personality here in Motown; I remember his morning commute reports vividly. Evidently he did a lot of restoring of old cars as hot rods, was a musician, big into charity stuff too.

I watched the footage tonight. Another station's helicopter news crew in the area saw and filmed most of the crash. The reporter in that helicopter was trying to report on it, but then it sunk in and you could really hear him falling apart a bit...can't blame him there. I have to assume that is a small club to be in, helicopter news pilot/reporters I mean.

Just sad, all around.

The controls you're asking about are mostly impossible for a couple of reasons - the ATC controllers don't actually control (absolutely) much of anything in the air. And the 'absolutely' I put in parentheses means they lack the
ability to do it, either legally or as a practical matter. There's no way a guy on the ground with a radar screen could possibly keep up with, let alone predict, what half a dozen helicopters following a police chase might do.

It only takes a few seconds for a pilot to be distracted and fail to notice proximity to another aircraft, which is why these situations are so abominably stupid. There are very few 'fender benders' up in the air.

Think of herding cats as a way to appreciate the situation.

I guess I just always figured controls were in place. I learn something new every day...

As background, I work in the Detroit metro area in close proximity to a place where royalty, presidents and other such esteemed people come through when they are in town. Our location is constantly in the news based only on who is at the location on a given day, and the news helicopters are the bearers of that news; they are as familiar to me as breathing. I definitely have seen multiples on a given day, but I have never seen them stray too close to one another, which is obviously what happened here.

All in all, just a very sad situation. Again, thanks for your input.

I saw the final camera shots on KNXV and then it all went shaky and that was it.....

It seems excessive to have so many choppers up to cover a story, but these guys are all friends and sort of like family . As the anchors said, the news people are a brotherhood.

Both stations lost two people each.

Channel 5


Damn. This is really sad. At least Craig, the one pilot did not take his "flying dog" Molly today.

DR

(I have a feeling that if we had this extent of coverage of our copter crashes in Iraq...we'd have our guys home already.)

Craig Smith worked here in Detroit for about eight years. His fellow reporters here are of course very upset over this. I'm glad that Molly wasn't there.

I'm in Detroit, Craig's former news home. I vividly remember an episode talking about Molly and her special harness for flying.

The local news here didn't mention if she was in the air with him today. I figured she might have been, but they didn't mention that here. I thank you for the info.

I agree.

May they rest in peace.

DR

But I think there server must be overloaded, because the video reports are not loading for me: <http://www.azfamily.com/>

I haven't tried their video yet.

<http://www.abc15.com/Default.aspx>

Anyone know who the other station was (who's helicopter didn't crash into these two, but "was in the area," as the OP says)?

...with cameras rolling. No shot of the actual crash or collision.

The video at this site works: <http://www.azcentral.com/12news/>

n/t

Those guys are belted, if not harnessed in.

Error should not compound error.

This is a pretty textbook case of pilot error. It's my understanding that it's normal for air traffic control to clear multiple helicopters in a given area on the notion that the pilots of those helicopters watch their own skies. Clearly someone wasn't paying attention to where he or she was piloting their craft and ended up killing 4 people with his or her incompetence. While the truck driver had some influence and thus responsibility over what vehicles on the ground did, he had absolutely no control over what aircraft above him did. That rests squarely on the shoulders of the pilots following any chase that doesn't involve them getting shot at from the ground. Never mind that this is yet another reason to banish high-speed chases from police procedure and news coverage...

They could have been filming any "news" event not just a chase. I agree that it was the pilots' responsibility to fly safely. I was a bit concerned when I heard the driver could be charged somehow in these deaths. That doesn't seem proper.

cause if he hadn't been trying to out run the cops it wouldn't have happened, he should've stopped. Here in LA some incidents of injury have occured and the driver is held responsible.

The helos could have been covering a large fire or heavy traffic or anything.

I still can't see how the accident was anyone's responsibility other than the helo pilots. But it's not for me to rule. We'll see what happens.

My sympathies to all the families grieving for those lost.

I presume that the prosecutor will try to compare this to innocent bystanders at a bank robbery shootout, but I can't see it working. It isn't his fault that news helicopters chose to follow the chase, and one of the pilots was negligent. If he has a competent lawyer, this is bound to be rejected by the judge (IMO).

Definitely charge him for the trouble he may have caused on the ground, but there are no grounds to charge him for the helicopter crashes.

On what grounds? So if the helicoptors were covering some celebrity wedding or a car show, who'd be arrested then? Please...

They will most certainly be missed. The local tributes to them have been heart wrenching. I believe that if tributes like these were done for our troops lost in Iraq that the "war" would have been over a long time ago. You can't watch things like this and not feel it in your heart.

:cry:

of something so ridiculous as a police chase. Crap like that shouldn't even be covered like that, it only encourages people who want to get on the "news".