PHOENIX -- Two television station helicopters tracking a high-speed police pursuit collided in midair crashed Friday killing at least three people. (UPDATE - 4 dead)Pursuits are a daily event in the Los Angeles area, and if they last long enough, they attract quite an airshow with numerous TV, radio and law enforcement helicopters following the action. Somehow they're able to sort themselves out without colliding, but a number of years ago we did have two police helicopters collide during a pursuit in Newport Beach.
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.
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.
Media helicopters have fared fairly well in Los Angeles, but I still remember August 1, 1977 when the KNBC helicopter piloted by Francis Gary Powers suffered a mechanical problem and crashed in Los Angeles, killing all on board. Gary Powers is probably best remembered as the U2 pilot shot down over Russia on May 1, 1960, adding lots of stress in the Soviet/U.S. relationship at the time. The crash occured around the time the evening news was on and had to be reported by the KNBC anchors. I remember well anchor Jess Marlow choking up as he reported the death of his friends.
I also watched the OJ Simpson low speed chase pass by the hotel near Disneyland where I was at the time, and the scene in the sky was like something out of an airborne assault in Vietnam. Many stations out here now employ more than one chopper, so the potential for another tragedy like the one in Phoenix is pretty large. They do seem to coordinate pretty well with one another, and there is apparently a protocol for each chopper with preassigned altitudes to keep everyone out of each other's way. So far, so good.
An additional element to this story will be the four murder charges that will probably be added to the litany of charges the pursuit suspect is already facing. That guy's day just went from bad to really, really bad.
UPDATE: Other headlines from Drudge:
UPDATE 2 - Crash Videos from Breitbart TV:**SHOCK VIDEO** (Warning - Graphic)
4 DEAD: TV Helicopters Collide Over Phoenix...
ABC15 crashed into park while covering high-speed chase...
CBS affiliate...
Another Helicopter Pilot Reacts To Crash...
CRASH PHOTO...
•Moments After Crash Distraught Fox Pilot Describes Witnessing Impact
07-27-2007 6:50 pm
•KPHO Helicopter Pans to Crash Moments After Collision
07-27-2007 6:18 pm
•News Helicopter Live Reaction Seconds After Two Others Collide
07-27-2007 5:23 pm
•Final Moments Live as the News Helicopters Collide (Warning - Disturbing)
07-27-2007 4:53 pm
•Two News Helicopters Collide While Covering Car Chase
07-27-2007 4:13 pm
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