This is a really terrible situation.
I've flown in TV News helicopters numerous times.
There have been a number of fatal news helicopter crashs here, but most of them were in the mountains, some of the most dangerous areas in the world in which to fly.
I've lost several friends in those crashes. One of the helicopters belonged to my former station here. It was on a search and rescue mission trying to assist local authorities find a small commuter airliner. The local news choppers do that a lot here. In another, a friend who was chief photographer at a competing station was killed when the helicopter hit a high tension line in a mountain valley. The same station lost a helicopter as it was leaving a high school championship contest on the eastern plains. It was snowing and they hit an electric wire -- I don't think there were deaths in that incident. That same station had two more crashs, one fatal when the machine crashed into Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins and a non-fatal emergency landing (which totalled the chopper) in downtown Denver. In that incident, they lost power and did an auto-rotation into Cherry Creek right across the street from Denver Fire Station Number One (also FD HQ). Cherry Creek runs between multiple lanes of Speer Blvd., and major street downtown.
One final incident happened to a third station when its helicopter made an emergency landing in a snow storm on top of Wolf Creek Pass in SW Colorado. There were no casualities, but they had to try to hike out in very deep snow, before a news helicopter from Albuquerque found them. At the time, by best friend was news director at the Albuquerque station.
On the face of what I've said here, it would seem that news helicopters are very dangerous -- and to some extent, I guess that's true. I will echo what has been said elsewhere, though, that these pilots are among the most professional I've ever met. They are extremely cautious, but they fly in dangerous conditions.
The pilot from my former station is a Viet Nam veteran pilot with thousands of hours of flight time. A few years ago, he and a photographer were on a routine assignment shooting some highway construction when there was a bank robbery and high speed chase in which a police officer was killed. Our helicopter located the suspect and followed him. The police lost him, but the chopper didn't and after the suspect wrecked his SUV and kidnapped an elderly man after hijacking his truck, Copter 4 led the police to them, then landed in front of the getaway vehicle so police could catch up. The hostage was saved, but the suspect was fatally shot. All of that was caught on tape by our photographer. the pilot got a personal letter from President Regan. In fact, he recently re-enlisted and is either about to ship out to Iraq (he'll probably be one of the oldest pilots in the Army), or may already be there.
A final thought about safety. While there have been a number of news helicopter accidents, considering the huge number of hours they fly, it probably is fairly safe statistically. It's just that when there is an incident, fatal or not, it is very high profile simply because of who owns, operates or leases the copter.
My deepest condolences to the families and collegues at the TV stations in Phoenix (who are, to a large extent, also a family). I really do know what they're going through.
Here is a link to a sound bite from another of the Phoenix TV helicopters just after the crash. It's pretty dramatic.
http://usatoday.feedroom.com/index.j...y=FRsupt207256
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