4 Dead As 2 Helicopters Tracking Police Pursuit Collide

[JonathanBelles]

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

The helicopters collided in mid-air over Steele Indian School Park around 12:40 p.m. 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.

"I've got a helicopter down," News Hawk 5 Capt. Connie Sullivan reported on air.

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.

The truck was riding on rims because it had run over police stop sticks.

"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."

"Looked something like 9-11 with debris exploding everywhere," said witness Brian Kenneth.

After the crash, the motorist police were chasing drove out to west Phoenix, where he bailed out of the vehicle in the 2900 block of North 83rd Avenue, police said.

He then ran into a house and police characterize it as a barricade situation.

Stay with KPHO.com for late-breaking details.

From CBS5 in Phoenix

[Ptarmigan]

Here's a disturbing video of one of the helicopter covering the chase before the midair collision happened. Really disturbing!

Disturbing Video


Very sad also.

[tropicana]

horrifying, in part for sure by what had happened, but horrifying to watch because you know what IS about to happen!
just utterly tragic

-justin-

[TreasureIslandFLGal]

My heart goes out to the victims and their families. Such an awful tragedy all over some idiot with no regard for anyone but, himself!

[lurkey]

You might want to change topic header to 4 dead. Fox News is reporting that all 4 crew members died in the mid-air collision

[HURAKAN]

I'm sorry for the families. These are deaths that could have been avoided. People that run from the police are stupid. The police will get you even if it takes having the entire police forece in the country.

In these police chases usually the victims are not the bad guys but the innocents.

[Stephanie]

This is so sad. I watched all of the videos and the pilot from the Fox News channel was just so distraught!

[Opal storm]

That video is hard to watch, very sad event. Thoughts and prayers to the families.

[DaylilyDawn]

I can't stand to watch the video, and my heart goes out to families, and fellow employees of all the victims.

[azskyman]

A tough day for us here in Phoenix. We see those helicopters each and every day. Their home base is near our home at Scottsdale Airport.

An employee of mine was at lunch with his wife when they heard the sirens, then heard a loud "pop." They went outside and looked toward the park and saw the second chopper hit.

Needless to say, a sad day here in the city.

Sometimes in an effort to cover the news so closely, you can become the news yourself.

[therock1811]

I just wrote this blog on my facebook account and would like to share it with everyone. Keeping in mind this is coming from my limited experiences visiting a TV station...this is what I have to say.

I'm not sure how many folks watched the national news today. But throughout the last 8 plus hours, I've been locked into coverage of today's tragic helicopter crash in Arizona where two TV news choppers smashed into each other and tragically both their crews were killed.

Not too many folks here will probably care much about this story - but I used to visit at a television station in Cincinnati (for those who know me from my time at Boone County High, you'll know, for those wondering, it was WKRC-TV). I got to see how these folks worked together inside the station. They're a close-knit community just like those of us on the college campuses of our nation. Remember VA Tech on April 16? Or how about how we all felt after 9/11? Same kind of deal. Well during my time visiting at WKRC, suffice it to say I became kind of a part of the WKRC-TV family. A small, infrequent part, but a part nonetheless. I felt the sadness that has to be gripping most of the TV news journalist community tonight. Four innocents, taken from this earth doing what they did best, and loved to do. And all because one man decided to break and then run from the law.

We all know the risks of the job these four were doing today in those copters. There's the same risk involved in a passenger airplane. But they do it so we know what's going on in our world. RIP to Jim Cox, Scott Bowerbank, Rick Krolak and Craig Smith.

[HurricaneBill]

Here's a disturbing video of one of the helicopter covering the chase before the midair collision happened. Really disturbing!

Disturbing Video

I think the newswoman had some idea of what had just happened. Notice how quickly she went to commercial break and also her gestures right at the end.

[Aslkahuna]

As an aside, the man who was being chased by the Police can be charged under AZ Law for the deaths of the 4 people since he was committing a felony.

Steve

[O Town]

I think the newswoman had some idea of what had just happened. Notice how quickly she went to commercial break and also her gestures right at the end.

Yes, I watched the very end a few times, and I think someone was telling her in her earpiece after she got done speaking.
Very sad situation. I hope the idiot that got caught feels horrible, but I know thats probably not going to happen.
Prayers go out to the family of the tragedy.

[Stephanie]

Here's a disturbing video of one of the helicopter covering the chase before the midair collision happened. Really disturbing!

Disturbing Video

I think the newswoman had some idea of what had just happened. Notice how quickly she went to commercial break and also her gestures right at the end.

I agree. She handled that well, considering it just happened.

Steve - that is great news that the man can get charged for that accident.

[Terrell]

I don't think he should be charged for the chopper accident. This was likely a case of pilot error. He should be charged for everything else he did however.

The pilots of the chopper should be the ones responsible to not collide with other aircraft, not the guy on the ground. There's a lot more space for them to maneuver in the air than on the ground. Not to mention were the pilots deputized in this case? Is this one of the crimes (in this case fleeing) that would fall under the felony murder rule? I though that was limited to robbery, rape, arson, assault, and a few other violent crimes. When the choppers collided, the crime that the accused was doing was fleeing from the police, I don't think he can be responsible for 2 aircraft, things that neither he, nor the pursuing police are likely to hit or endanger with their automobiles, colliding with one another while in the air.

It's not reasonably forseeable that helicopters would run into each other while following a suspect ground vehicle, through a high speed chase. Now if the accident happened ON THE GROUND during the pursuit, I would have a different point of view on this. If it were a case where either the fleeing suspect or the police crusiers hit another ground vehicle, or a pedestrain, or a building, then I would say charge him as it's reasonably forseeable that during a chase on the ground that an accident on the ground, involving fatalities, would happen. It's much less forseeable that 2 helicopters would collide with one another while in the air as a result of fleeing from the police.

For the helicopter people to be the fleeing automobile's fault, I would think that he actions of the driver in the automobile would have to be something that could realistically cause the choppers damage. Like if someone in the automobile fired a weapon at the helicopter. There really isn't much else that an automobile can do to cause a helicopter, that is in flight, to crash, as they simply aren't operating on the same plane (mathematical plane).

Besides doesn't the FAA have rules about how close 2 aircraft can come to one another, and shouldn't it be the responsibility of the pilots of said aircraft to avoid violating such rules? (since the purpose of such rules would be to prevent such crashes from happening) Why should it be the fault of the fleeing car, that the pilots violate FAA rules about keeping distance from one another.

[TexasStooge]

Many thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those killed.

[azsnowman]

As an aside, the man who was being chased by the Police can be charged under AZ Law for the deaths of the 4 people since he was committing a felony.

Steve

ABSOULETLY

Did you see this scum being booked into jail? He had his left arm bandaged up because of the NUMEROUS dog bites!!

I met all four gentlemen last year during a wildfire we had in the area.....such gracious gentlemen....I am still in shock

[TreasureIslandFLGal]

Wouldn't a charge like that against the moron fall under some sort of involuntary manslaughter at least???

It WAS his actions that led to the accident even being able to occur in the first place!

[Terrell]

:?: Wouldn't a charge like that against the moron fall under some sort of involuntary manslaughter at least???

It WAS his actions that led to the accident even being able to occur in the first place!

The actions that led up to the crash weren't solely his. The choppers didn't have to go to the chase (the chase didn't come to the choppers btw), the pilots could have payed better attention to the other aircraft in the area. Why don't the pilots have any responsibility for their mistakes? The driver didn't go to the choppers, they went to him. The driver wasn't even capable of going to the choppers since cars/trucks cannot fly.

Had he caused a car accident on the ground, or had he struck someone with the car, then yes he would probably get a manslaughter or 2nd degree murder case (depending on the circumstances and the law in AZ). Had he been shooting at the choppers with a firearm, and the choppers collided while trying to avoid his fire, then they could charge him for the deaths.

However, the choppers are NOT duty bound, by law, or required to follow the car, they are there totally by choice, in addition the car itself isn't able to go up to where the choppers are and physically threaten them. Think of it this way, had the choppers fell from the sky from mechanical failure or from running out of fuel, would it still be the fleeing felon's fault that the choppers crashed? Why wouldn't it be the pilot's fault for not monitoring his fuel guage, or the mechanic's fault for not making sure that all the parts on the chopper were working properly? Why isn't it the pilot's responsibility to make sure he watches where he's going?

Putting the blame for the chopper crash on the felon, when the felon didn't do anything that was a threat to the choppers (the fleeing was reasonably and forseeably a threat to all innocent bystanders ON THE GROUND, but it's nothing that the driver can do in the act of driving the car, that is a threat to the chopper, at least until cars sprout wings.). The felon has plenty of other things to be blamed for, but the deaths of chopper pilots/crew shouldn't be one of them, when none of the actions that the car took represented a threat to aircraft. They did represent a threat to those on the ground (where the car was actually capable of going) but what goes on in the air isn't the driver's responsibility. The driver would have needed to open fire on the choppers, with a weapon, to have posed a reasonable threat to their safety.