Two News Choppers Collide in Phoenix, 4 Dead

[Matt Molnar]

3 Dead As Two Helicopters Tracking Police Pursuit Crash

POSTED: 12:55 pm PDT July 27, 2007
UPDATED: 1:30 pm PDT July 27, 2007


PHOENIX -- Two television station helicopters tracking a high-speed police pursuit crashed Friday killing at least three people.

The helicopters collided in mid-air over Steele Indian School Park while filming the pursuit for Channels 3 and 15.

KNXV-TV Channel 15 reported that one of the choppers belonged to the station. The other chopper was from KTVK Channel 3 in Phoenix.

Video from the scene showed flames and thick black smoke from where both helicopters cashed.

Just before the crashes, the driver of the truck police had been chasing had jumped out of the nearly disabled flatbed pickup and carjacked another truck.

"I was driving and heard a bang," one witness told CBS 5 News.

"I was standing out on Central Avenue and I was looking over to the park and saw the helicopters get close," Jerry Fender said. "The blue one split and went down. The red or orange one went right after it." Fender said he didn't see them crash.

Stay with KPHO.com for late-breaking details.

[Matt Molnar]

Last moments caught on tape:

Video: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/3645.html

[USAF Pilot 07]

Oh wow... quite spectacular.... RIP to those involved in the crash...

[Gerard]

Oh wow... quite spectacular.... RIP to those involved in the crash...

The commentary from an arriving ENG copter who witnessed the crash is heartbreaking. I believe it is the pilot and he is pretty much freaking out and just about hyperventilating!!
Two things I heard on an extensive Fox News coverage is that one of the pilots was a substitute and the other is that
possibly one of the ships had some type of mechanical failure that caused it to loose control and hit the other ship.
Very sad story.

[wunaladreamin]

R.I.P.

[Gerard]

R.I.P.

UNfriggin believable picture!!! WOW!!!

[cancidas]

aw jeez... rip to the crews, the pax and the birds.

[Gerard]

I thought I heard one of the pilots or reporters was originally from Long Island.
Sad story.
I've listened in during a few of these ENG clusters and it is interesting with sometimes
6 ENGs and PD all on scene. They utilize 123.025 and also monitor the Tower airspace they are working in. And in NYC if PD is on scene they help keep everyone together. These guys are competitors but from listening in you can tell they are all friendly with one another chatting about different topics and getting into some funny (sometimes dark) humor while the photog/reporter is doing their thing for the network. They are always
giving location/altitude checks especially if they start moving around and when they arrive
or leave the area.

[PhilDernerJr]

Incidents like this could very well lead to new rules regarding covering news from the air. I personally think it was only a matter of time.

Very tragic and sad to see it so documented. RIP to all involved.

[Gerard]

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/

has an interview with the photog who took that amazing picture.

[Gerard]

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/

has an interview with the photog who took that amazing picture.

Oh yeah, scroll down and see the link "LaVoz photographer".

[moose135]

I thought I heard one of the pilots or reporters was originally from Long Island.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longi ... -headlines

LI native among those killed in chopper collision
BY PETER HOLLEY
[email protected]

July 29, 2007

For Jim Cox, hobbies were more than just casual interests -- they were all-consuming fixations. And over the course of 37 years, there were many. More recently, friends and family said, the South Huntington native had decided to get his pilot's license so he could fly the choppers he spent so much time in as a cameraman above Phoenix. "He would just learn everything he could about something," his sister, Leslie Cox, of Austin, Texas, said Saturday. "He was very passionate."

On Friday, Cox was doing the job he loved on board a KTVK-TV news helicopter when it collided with a second chopper in midair before plummeting 500 feet to the ground and bursting into flames. All four people aboard Cox's aircraft and the KNXV-TV helicopter -- one pilot and one photographer each -- were killed. With five news helicopters in the air, the scene over Phoenix was hectic as pilots tailed a truck that police were pursuing on the ground.

Some witnesses said one of the TV helicopters appeared to be hovering when a second one turned into it. "They just got sucked into each other, and they both exploded and pieces were flying everywhere," said Rick Gotchie, an air conditioning contractor who was working nearby. Federal investigators will spend several days examining the scene and the helicopters' maintenance records, and will look at whether the pilots followed federal regulations, National Transportation Safety Board member Steve R. Chealander said Saturday. "Aviation accidents are very complex and we have to look into every aspect of it, and it's never quite what it seems," Chealander said.

In addition to Cox, pilot Scott Bowerbank was killed on board the KTVK helicopter. On board the KNXV aircraft were reporter-pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak, that station said.

Cox grew up in South Huntington and attended St. Anthony's High School, before graduating from Huntington High School in 1988.

[Gerard]

>LI native among those killed in chopper collision[/b]<

Thanks Moose. I had actually just read that story before logging on here. Very tragic. Sounds like a great guy.