# T.V. Helicopters Crash

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-v-helicopters-crash/413483>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 28, 2007, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-v-helicopters-crash/413483 "2007-07-28T12:08:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-v-helicopters-crash/413483/1 "2007-07-28T12:08:27Z")

</div>

> **[Witnesses: Helicopters seemed fine before collision - CNN.com](https://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/07/27/helicopter.crash/index.html)**
>
> Eyewitnesses to the collision of two news helicopters in Phoenix, Arizona, in which four people were killed, told investigators they noticed no problems with either aircraft before the collision, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said...

Summary: Two rival news stations sent helicopters to cover a police chase; these helicopters apparently didn’t notice each other’s presence and collided. I would think that those who piloted the choppers would be responsible but apparently not:

> [@](#):
>
> The police chief said the suspect will likely face criminal charges for the deaths in the helicopter crash.
> 
> “I think he will be held responsible for any of the deaths from this tragedy,” Harris said.

Is this fair? The guy on the ground, though comitting a serious offence, had absolutely NO control over what happened in the air. It was up to the news stations to send those helicopters and it was up to the pilots to make sure these helicopters didn’t crash into anything else. Unless the suspect shined a laser into the pilot’s eyes, I fail to see how he is guilty of anything other that what the police were chasing him for in the first place (and tresspassing & breaking an entering). Is this just the police chief letting out his grief to the media or will the suspect really be prosecuted for a pilot’s error?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-v-helicopters-crash/413483/2 "2007-07-28T12:11:53Z")

</div>

There’s a [GQ thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=430564) about this at the moment.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-v-helicopters-crash/413483/3 "2007-07-28T12:32:43Z")

</div>

My apologies; please lock if necessary.