Free Republic

PHOENIX — Federal investigators on Saturday began gathering debris from two news helicopters that collided while covering a police chase on live television and crashed, killing all four people aboard. The investigators plan to lay out the wreckage elsewhere to try to determine the point where the two aircraft collided Friday, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Howard Plagens said. "We're just mapping out the locations ... how things are scattered, that's our main focus," he said. Investigators said they'll need at least another day to finish going through the debris, which was sprayed across the ground and landed atop nearby...

Christopher JonesThe suspect in Friday’s high-speed chase that gained national attention when two news helicopters collided above the scene shuffled into court Saturday morning with his head down and his left arm wrapped in heavy gauze from his wrist to his elbow. Christopher Jones, 23, suffered the injuries Friday afternoon during his arrest when police dogs took him down inside a west Phoenix residence. “I’m not a flight risk,” Jones told Commissioner Joan Sinclair during his initial court appearance at Madison Street Jail. “I will man up to what I did. I am responsible for it.” Jones told the...

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....

DEVELOPING STORY: Two television news helicopters collided Friday and crashed while covering a police pursuit, killing at least two people. Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. The collision happened as the two choppers broadcast live coverage of police pursuing a truck. Cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground, so viewers did not witness the accident. The first indication of trouble came when pictures from the helicopters went dead. Television station KNXV reported that it owned one of the choppers. The other was from KTVT, which reported that both the pilot and...

Phoenix — Two helicopters collided in midair and crashed while covering a police pursuit in central Phoenix Friday afternoon, killing at least two people. Both helicopters were news choppers from local television stations.

News Choppers Collide in Phoenix; 3 Killed Both helicopters belonged to local television news stations and were covering a police pursuit.

Two television news helicopters covering a police pursuit crashed and burned in a central Phoenix park, killing at least two people. Watch for reports throughout the day. A KTVK T-V anchor tearfully told viewers that one of the helicopters was theirs, and that the pilot and photographer aboard were killed. KNXV-TV said the other helciopter was theirs.