Around 1oclock this afternoon, here in Phoenix two helicopters collided during a police chase. Pretty tragic.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3422607&page=1

 

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070727/4...ea2_jm5SFH2ocA

Terrible thing. 4 people dead.

 

Hey it's all about the Dirty Laundry! We want to see it all no matter who gets killed.

 

Sounds like a case of Target Fixation with one, or both pilots.
A very sad situation.
The only good part is both came down with no ground casualties.

With the number of news choppers in the air all trying to be the Firstist with the Mostist with video of a major story,
I only surprised that this hasn't happened more often.

Hopefully the FAA will finally get some rules of engagement established.

 

Your right, our neighbors cousin was killed in her driveway by a single engined aircraft a few years ago, plopped right into the driveway didn't stand a chance. Very sad situation that one was.

 

FAA has these rules in place already. VFR, Visual Flight Rules. Those guys should have transponders that let them know where the other aircraft are.

Your probably right about target fixation. Sad situation.

 

I think they did very well in engagement...


VFR, Visual Flight Rules: it's called " see and avoid "
Pilot is totally responsible..

and Rules against " stupid " don't seem to work very well.

 

Did you catch the sheriff saying that they were going to try to hold the pursued driver liable for the four deaths?

I'm moving to Mexico if they can get that to stick...

 

yeah i heard that to in the paper today. I do not get how the driver could be charged with the collision. it very sad that 4 people died but i do not think it is the drivers fault at all the pilots are supposed to be highly training and should be paying attention to what is around them. the police helicopter didnt crash into anything.

 

My wife was just leaving an appointment right across the street from the park where the crash happened. She was in her car stopped waiting for traffic to clear so she could pull out when she heard a loud boom and her car shook. She looked up and the 2 choppers crashed a few hundred feet in front of her. Ya Never Know....

 

Not only that, but considering that police helocopters were on scene, the media copters didn't have to be following the guy.

If a news van rolled over or any other "civilian" was killed trying to keep up with him in their car, he's not liable. I don't see how it is any different when a couple news choppers crash trying to do the same thing.

The question is whether or not anybody's going to change any rules now, be it the FAA, the media or the police. Media choppers might just not be able to follow any more at all.

 

Theres going to be some nimwit that says "well if the guy wasnt running the news wouldnt have followed' to try to get it to stick.

If it was a traffic accident on the ground that he had a hand in, sure, charge him with murder.. But that was just lack of care on BOTH pilots behalf.

It couldve been a news story on a dog running loose and they still wouldve done the same.

Thankfully no one else was injured on the ground.

 

With the news being what it is, this will happen more often until someone steps in like Ed says.

 

I doubt they had Mode S transponders so they would not have a warning. They are VFR in Class B at that location, but have no seperation services. Also therey are manuvering with-in a small area with little Vetical seperation in the first place. If they happened to be TCAS equipted it would have been silenced because of the extreme number of warnings. In a situtation of a low vertical seperation it would only have taken one of the Pilots to miss a Barometric call out to lose enough altimeter accuracy to allow this to happen.

As for the charging him with their death. We have a law (and most other states do as well) if there is a injury or death that occurs as a result of a crime you commit you can be charged with it. Ie, Bank robnery and someone trips and busts their head open, you can be charged. In this case I don't think it really fits the law. I do think this idiot should be toasted anyway. My wife and I where sitting at a light headed the opposite direction when he came flying around a corner. By this time only the police helicopter was in the air nearby.

Randy

 

shovelhead,My cousin flies one,and he said the same thing.both pilots were watching what was going on below them,and weren't paying enough attention,to what was going on around them.