PHOENIX, AZ (July 27, 2007) - Two television photojournalists and their two pilots died Friday when their helicopters apparently collided while covering a live news story shortly after noon over the city.
KNXV-TV and KTVK-TV both report that their helicopters were the ones that crashed, and their pilots and photographers were the victims. KNXV-TV says Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were killed in their helicopter, and KTVK-TV says pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox were killed in their aircraft.
Smith was reporting live on the air as police chased the vehicle of a man who had fled from a traffic stop, abandoned his truck when police flattened the tires, and commandeered another vehicle before being surrounded by police. As police closed in on the man, the picture from the chopper was lost and the station switched to regular broadcasting before coming back on the air to report the crash.
Witnesses have told investigators the KTVK helicopter appeared to be stationary when the KNXV helicopter struck it.
The Arizona Republic reports that both helicopters came down on a grassy lawn in a park, near an abandoned church. News stories quote eye witnesses who say that one helicopter flew into the back of the other, striking its tail with the rotor blades before there was an explosion and both aircraft plummeted to the ground. One eyewitness, a construction worker on a building, said the two helicopters were circling closer to each other overhead right before the collision.
In a story that will appear in Saturday's Arizona Republic, the newspaper is reporting on the radio traffic between the two helicopters shortly before they collided. In a story written by John Faherty, Becky Bartowski, and Jennifer Price, the Republic says that Smith was on the radio with the KTVK-TV chopper pilot, Bowerbank. Smith is heard on the radio asking Krolak and Bowerbank, "Where's 3?" Then, "How far? Oh, jeez." And then finally, "3, I'm right over you. 15 on top of you. I'm over the top of you."
The Republic is also reporting that the FAA had cleared five news helicopters and one police helicopter into the area of airspace over the chase. Once inside that area, it is the responsibility of the pilots to maintain safe separation distances and to communicate with each other.
Video from one of the other news helicopters covering the chase, KPNX-TV's Sky 12, cut away from police and the suspect and rapidly panned left to show the two burning choppers on the ground, in balls of fire, with plumes of black smoke already rising high into the sky.
With a shaky voice a KPNX-TV reporter in their helicopter said, "We do have two helicopters down. We're not sure which helicopters they were. Oh this is bad, this is very bad up here, Scott. They may be PD and also local media helicopters. We're not sure. We're hoping these people are okay inside these helicopters. This is very very tragic turn of events here. I don't want to get in too close and broadcast something this tragic. The people inside those helicopters could be really, really good friends of ours."
KNXV-TV says the crash site was the location of a former Indian school. An eyewitness driving her four grandchildren in a car told KNXV-TV that she saw a fireball in the sky and the two helicopters crash and that she drove to the crash site to help, but there was nothing she could do. No one came out of either of the burning aircraft.
Smith, a reporter/pilot with nearly two decades of experience, volunteered with a team of doctors in his free time to fly organs to patients awaiting transplants, the station says, and he often flew with a West Highland White Terrior dog named Molly as a companion. The dog was not with him Friday at the time of the crash.
Krolak had worked for Channel 15 for 9 years, and Channel 3 for a decade, the station reports. They say he is survived by three children and a grandchild.
Witness Rick Cotchie told KTVK-TV that the collision "was like a vacuum. They just got sucked into each other, and they both exploded and pieces were flying everywhere."
KTVK-TV reports that Bowerbank had been with the station since February 2004, and Cox had been working for them since 1995.
The man who police were chasing, Christopher Jones, 23, was arrested after barricading himself in a home. Officers said he required immediate medical care when he was arrested due to the extensive number of dog bites he received from a police K-9 dog. Jones has been arraigned on four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of theft of means of transportation, and one count of resisting arrest. His bond was set at $1 million after a prosecutor told a judge that the suspect might flee and that he is a danger to the entire community. KNXV-TV reports that Jones has a criminal record and was on parole.
