Newscopter crash...

[RICHARD]

http://www.firehawkhelicopters.com/DSCN0416.JPG

Living two blocks away from a small regional airport this is really scary.

There are two local news choppers and a bunch of the smaller choppers that fly out that airport- To top it off there is the Los Angeles County Fire Dept's Air Operation Center is next door to that! They fly the Blackhawk helicopters back to the center at dusk.

You will hear the distant thump getting louder until it passes overhead.
It's so loud and percussive that the knick knacks in my mom's house need to be pushed back on the shelves once a month.

There are usually two accidents a year at this airport-Thank goodness no serious ones in a while.

This crash makes me nervous.

[Laura's Babies]

I would NOT want to live anywhere near a airport!

[lizbud]

What a terrible thing. Did anyone on the ground get hurt also?
I'm really kind of surprised this hasn't happened before. All the channels
seem to compete for the best news story footage.

[RICHARD]

The airport runways run North to South. I live to the West, So I just hear them most of the time. The news copters take off going in all directions-

I have learned my lessons about 'chasing crashes'. When I was a kid I went to the corner to meet my sister who was coming home from school. I heard a thump and saw smoke start to rise from where the plane hit.

Some friends and I ran to the spot and as I was running up to the building I came to the pilot's body, still in the seat, about 30 feet away....That spooked me for months afterwards.

[Scooter's Mom]

There were no injuries on the ground. The helicopters went down in a park. There is a VA hospital and some condos nearby, so it is just sheer luck they went down in the park... and as normal in the Phoenix summer, not very many people were outside at the park.

The pilot and photographer on each helicopter perished. For the ABC station (channel 15), their names are Craig Smith and Rick Krolak. For the local news station (channel 3) they are Scott Bowerbank and Jim Cox.

It was an awful event to have happen, or to witness. Please keep the families of these four men in your thoughts and your prayers.

[lizbud]

I heard a news report on the crash last night. It said the guy flying the
copter was also giving commentary on the event. Only other person in the
copter was the photographer. I would think just flying the thing
would be a full time job.

[RICHARD]

Man, In the last few weeks there have three incidents involving WWII airplanes


One in Camarillo where a guyflipped a P-51 and was killed. Another pilot landed his T-6 on a freeway and yesterday one pilot was killed and another hurt at an airshow in Wisconsin.