Posted on 07/29/2007 3:43:38 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
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 buildings.
On Saturday, investigators allowed reporters into the crash site.
The helicopters' hulls were flipped over and squashed in two twisted heaps. The explosion blackened grass and trees. Curved metal sheets from the choppers floated upside down in a nearby pond.
Meanwhile, the man suspected of starting the chase was booked into jail on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of theft and one count of resisting arrest.
Christopher Jermaine Jones, 23, also may be held responsible for the helicopter crash, police said.
Formal charges are expected to come later. At an initial court appearance, bail was set at $1 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I wonder who they charge if a news chopper crashes in the middle of a traffic report.
With the newer zooming cameras these guys have to work with I can’t undersdtand why they all have to orbit DIRECTLY over the point of interest.
I heard a snippet of conversation between two of them yesterday and it sounded to me like they both knew they were flirting with disaster. It sounded as though they were comparing altitudes as if they could not see each other.
RIP. My sympathy for the families.
“......but news accidents are now the fault of the suspect?”
Someone does something that you don’t like or that makes you angry, you sicc the law on them and make believe that that’s OK and well within the law’s jurisdiction. The kids swatting butts case comes to mind.
It kills me that so many people recognize that the Great American culture is dying and as they point it out and comment on it they refrence the ramifications as coming years from now. It’s now. Kid has a sunburn from his outing at the beach? You’re under arrest. It’s now, not later.
That just doesn’t seem right to me either.
Horrible isnt it.
What the saying about busybodies and minding their own affairs.
Gang shootings and no one will snitch but your right a sunburn and they throw the book at you.
Journalists! Peeking through keyholes! Running after fire engines like a lot of coach dogs! Waking people up in the middle of the night to ask them what they think of Mussolini. Stealing pictures off old ladies of their daughters that get raped in Oak Park. A lot of lousy, daffy buttinskis, swelling around with holes in their pants, borrowing nickels from office boys! And for what? So a million hired girls and motormen's wives'll know what's going on.
Hecht and MacArthur were being kind.
“Christopher Jermaine Jones, 23, also may be held responsible for the helicopter crash, police said.”
Perhaps its under the doctrine of “attractive nuisance”, as when the owner of a swimming pool is held liable for neighborhood kids sneaking into it late at night and drowning. Criminals in the act of their crimes are “attractive nuisances” for rubber-necking passersby, especially the universal representatives of the fatuously inquisitive: journalists.
That’s streching it.
Before gyroscope stabilized cameras, news helicopters tried to get close for the best picture.
Now they try to get close to show the perpetrator's face inside the car.
With our media, it is never enough.
The police *must* pursue a suspect. The media do not have such an obligation.
Prosecutorial overreach. Lots of that going around these days.
This is complete BS. I think the perp has a stronger case for suing the news stations — after all, it was HIS life that was put in danger when they negligently ran into each other and rained debris, including possibly contagious biological debris, into his proximity!
If cops or someone else on the ground had been killed during the pursuit, that would be warranted. But media hounds killed in competion over coverage DUE TO PILOTS' ERROR.... ABSURD!
I suspect that the prosecutor thinks the perp is an easy target due to his past convictions and this police chase. He’s counting on the public not caring about the perp and he thinks he has 4 convictions for some form of homicide in the bag. I’m sure it’s an awfully nice feather in his cap on the road to becoming a judge or any political future.
If he tries it I suspect it’s going to blow up in his face.
They need to agree on some kind of altitude separation.
If the suspect himself rams another car or forces another vehicle into a collision then and only then ought he be charged.
The police do not need nor deserve carte blanche for any acts of carelessness or stupidity committed in the line of duty.Nor do newspeople or any other busybody who injures anyone while observing any activity.
The doctrine of personal responsibilty for one's acts cannot reasonably be expanded to include the bad judgments of everyone;else we all better do nothing for fear of prosecution.
I'm in total agreement with you. Place the blame where blame belongs, with the pilots. That said, it is very sad that there was any loss of life.
I forget who said it, but there’s a great quote out there:
“There are two kinds of people in this world...
those who want to be left alone and
those who won’t leave them alone!”
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