WBTV helicopter crashes, killing weatherman, pilot

Damn, damn, damn.

Instantly I recalled Jane Dornacker and several other incidents involving reporters. I never have stepped foot in a whirlybird but admire those who do it every day to keep us informed.

 

Awful. I have professional relationships and friendships with a number of WBTV folks. I am heartbroken for them today.

 

I remember Dornacker. There was a bad one in Phoenix many a moon ago when choppers from competing stations crashed. The four network affiliates in the market eventually pooled resources for a shared copter.

EDIT: Adds link. Phoenix news helicopter collision - Wikipedia

 

A couple of months ago the Tampa NBC station lost its pilot, who had a heart attack and died in his sleep
The morning crew was especially stunned as it was joking with him the day before

 

A horrid reminder that those people in those choppers put themselves on the line a lot more than we'd like to admit.

No, I don't want to dehumanize this - it's horrible and it hits too close to home - but just in case we took what they do up there for granted ...

RIP to two good people in the biz and Thank You.

 

Wasn’t she the woman who portrayed the nurse in The Right Stuff?
RIP to both gentlemen.

 

The Seattle one from several years back stands out. RIP.

 

I still remember this one from when I was a teen. Francis Gary Powers was a spy shot down by Russia, setting off an international incident and high-profile prisoner exchange, who later died in a crash as a TV helicopter reporter.

Francis Gary Powers - Wikipedia

Powers was piloting a helicopter for Los Angeles TV station KNBC Channel 4 over the San Fernando Valley on August 1, 1977, when the aircraft crashed, killing him and his cameraman George Spears. They had been recording video following brush fires in Santa Barbara County in the KNBC helicopter and were heading back from them

 

Didn’t one go down in Charlottesville during the Klan/Nazi rally?

 

That was a state police helicopter.

 

Gotcha.