2007 Phoenix news helicopter collision
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On July 27, 2007, two AS-350 AStar helicopters from television stations
KNXV-TV KNXV-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate KASW (channel 61). Both stations share studios on 44th Street on the city's e ...
and
KTVK KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KTVK and KPHO-TV share s ...
collided in mid-air over
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, while covering a
police pursuit A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle in pursuit, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive i ...
. On board the two aircraft were four people in total – pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak from KNXV-TV, and pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox from KTVK – all of whom were killed, while no casualties were reported on the ground.


Accident

KNXV was the area's
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate, while KTVK was an independent news station, formerly an ABC affiliate itself; both stations had switched their affiliations after longtime
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
affiliate
KSAZ-TV KSAZ-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, broadcasting the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KUTP (channel 45). Both st ...
affiliated with Fox in December 1994. The two helicopters were broadcasting a police pursuit live when the collision occurred, at 12:46:18 p.m.
MST The Master of Studies or Master in Studies (M.St. or MSt; ) is a postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of St Andrews, the Australian National University, University of Dublin and the University of Ne ...
. Both aircraft came down in the
Steele Indian School Park Steele Indian School Park is located on the northeast corner of Indian School Road and Central Avenue in Encanto Village, Phoenix, Arizona. Geography Indian School Road, on which the former Phoenix Indian School and the current Steele Indian S ...
, central Phoenix. Three other news helicopters from some of the city's other stations (KSAZ,
KPNX KPNX (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Mesa, Arizona, United States, serving the Phoenix area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios at the Republic Media building on Van Buren Street i ...
, and
KPHO KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Independent station (North America), independent station KTVK (channel 3) and low-power broadcasting#T ...
) were in the area and within seconds began reporting on the crash. A photograph taken moments after the collision and showing both helicopters plunging towards the ground was circulated by AP.


Aftermath and investigation

The collision was investigated by the
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB), which concluded that "...the probable cause of this accident was both pilots' failure to see and avoid the other helicopter. Contributing to this failure was the pilots' responsibility to perform reporting and visual tracking duties to support their station's
electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronics, electronic video and sound recording and reproduction, audio technologies by journalist, reporters to gather and present news instead of using film camera ...
(ENG) operation. Contributing to the accident was the lack of formal procedures for Phoenix-area ENG pilots to follow regarding the conduct of these operations." The day of the accident, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris brought up the possibility that the suspect in the chase the two helicopters were covering could "be held responsible for any of the deaths from this tragedy". However, in 2010, when the suspect pleaded guilty to 35 crimes stemming from the 2007 police chase, he was not charged with the deaths of the helicopter occupants. Two years after the accident, the families of pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox announced that a settlement for an undisclosed amount was agreed to with US Helicopters, the owners of the Channel 15 helicopter. Both legal teams released a video reconstructing details of the accident. The computer generated footage simulates the Channel 3 (KTVK) helicopter being struck from behind by the Channel 15 (KNXV) helicopter.


Legacy

At the time of the accident, five news helicopters were covering the police incident and specific protocols (called ''Sharp Echo'') for radio communications between news helicopters and Phoenix control tower were already in force in an attempt to coordinate their activity. As of 2022, the five English-language television stations in Phoenix use one helicopter, which is shared by KTVK, KPHO, KNXV, KSAZ, and KPNX. In neither operation do pilots perform reporting duties. Additionally, technological improvements such as long-range camera lenses allow helicopters to stay farther back from news stories.


See also

*
List of news aircraft accidents and incidents This is a list of news aircraft accidents and incidents. __TOC__ Accidents occurring while gathering news F = fatalities;  I = injuries Accidents occurring outside news-gathering activities F = fatalities;  I = injuries Refere ...


References


External links


Picture of N215TV at airport-data.com


{{Aviation incidents and accidents in 2007 2007 in Arizona 2000s in Phoenix, Arizona Accidents and incidents involving the Eurocopter AS350 History of mass media in the United States Aviation accidents and incidents in Arizona Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2007 Aviation accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Mid-air collisions Mid-air collisions involving helicopters History of law enforcement in the United States July 2007 events in the United States