Two Helicopters Collide Over Phoenix

Friday July 27, 2007 10:31 PM
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (AP) - Two news helicopters collided and crashed Friday while covering a police chase on live television, killing four people on board. Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt.

TV viewers did not actually witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground. But they saw images from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio.

Television station KNXV reported that it owned one of the choppers. The other was from KTVK. A pilot and photographer aboard each chopper were killed.

Within a minute, other stations with helicopters in the area began reporting news of the crash.

KNXV reporter Craig Smith, who was among the dead, was reporting live as police chased a man driving a construction truck who had fled a traffic stop and was driving erratically, hitting several cars and driving on the sidewalk at times.

Police had blown the truck's tires, and the man eventually parked it, then carjacked another vehicle nearby.

As police closed in, Smith said, ``Oh geez!''

After the picture broke up, the station switched to the studio and then briefly showed regular programming, a soap opera, before announcing that the helicopter had crashed.

Read full story at: Guardian