Pilot/Reporters Were "Distracted" In Fatal Phoenix News Chopper Crash
By Donald R. Winslow
News Photographer magazine
WASHINGTON, DC (January 28, 2009) – The pilot/reporters of two Phoenix news helicopters had so many distractions while covering a police car chase on the ground that they lost track of each other and collided mid-air in 2007, killing all four journalists who were aboard both aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a hearing today as they discussed their upcoming final accident report.
The two pilots, who were broadcasting live on the air at the time they collided, "had too many distractions ... The probable cause of this accident was both pilots' failure to see and avoid the other helicopter," NTSB officials said.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker said repeatedly in today's hearing that pilots should not be reporting when they are at the controls of an aircraft.
"Contributing to this failure was the pilots' responsibilities to perform reporting and visual tracking duties to support their station's electronic news gathering operations."
In other words, the pilots were so busy reporting live on the progression of a police chase taking place beneath them - they were watching the ground to give a play-by-play description as the chase unfolded instead of watching where they were flying - that they failed to keep track of the locations of the other news helicopters that were flying around them.
"The FAA should be looking at this," NTSB board member Steven Chealander, a former military fighter pilot said. "If you're flying, you're flying.
The NTSB will recommend to the Federal Aviation Administration that they consider regulations that would split the flying and reporting duties inside news helicopters, unless it can be proven that pilots can handle both duties safely "under all conditions."
The NTSB also concluded that a "lack of adequate procedures for how news helicopters operate in Phoenix' was a contributing factor in the crash.
Killed in the crash were the two-man crews from Channel 15 KNXV-TV and Channel 3 KTVK-TV, pilot/reporter Craig Smith and photojournalist Rick Krolak from Channel 15, and pilot/reporter Scott Bowerbank and photojournalist Jim Cox from Channel 3.
"I certainly hope the news industry will listen to the NTSB and change their practices regarding pilots acting as reporters," Leslie Cox told News Photographer magazine today. She's the sister of Channel 3's Jim Cox.
"It's just common sense. I wouldn't want any other family to have to go through what my family has been through this past year and a half. It has truly been a nightmare. We can never get over losing my brother."
On a clear day on July 27, 2007, five helicopters from Phoenix news stations and a police helicopter were following a police chase on the ground when Channel 15 and Channel 3's helicopters collided while live on the air. Pilots Smith and Bowerbank were both flying and reporting live on the air when the collision happened. The two helicopters fell, bursting into flames when they crashed into a downtown city park.
"The problem we have is that sometimes the pilots, if they are wearing their chopperati hats, forget they're flying and get more into the broadcast journalism aspect of it and potentially lose situational awareness," Rosenker said.
NTSB board member Debbie Hersman said, "This accident is an early warning sign for us. It's the canary in the coal mine. It showed very clearly that these pilots got distracted."
NTSB's report will say that the pilots were surrounded by distractions. They were listening to police radios, coordinating coverage with news producers back at the station, talking with the photojournalists on board, talking to the other news helicopter pilots over their radio, and trying to fly and report live on the air at the same time.
Rosenker said that instead of reporting live, the pilots should have been talking with each other.
The NTSB also voiced their frustration that nationally many television stations "have not changed their ways" since the Phoenix crash in the methods they use to cover stories.
"They know about this accident and yet they have not split their reporting and piloting duties," Hersman said Wednesday in Washington, DC. "I think if they didn't change in Phoenix, I don't have any strong hopes that they are going to change in other places," she said.
"I would have expected a 100 percent change in Phoenix," Hersman said.
In the Phoenix television market, not all stations have split the flying and reporting duties since the crash, the Arizona Republic reports. Channels 3 and 15 now use separate pilots and reporters, and Channel 12 has been following that practice since 2005, according to the NTSB report.
NTSB's final report on the Phoenix accident is likely to be released in a few weeks, they said today, at which time they will make their recommendations to the FAA about changes that they believe need to be made in the operation of news helicopters.
Following the crash, as the details of what happened became known, the National Press Photographers Association spoke out against pilots acting as reporters and doing both flying and journalist's duties while operating the aircraft. NPPA's position today continues to be that, calling for separate pilots and on-air talent in news helicopters.
One unexpected factor that may have an impact on news helicopter operational safety is the economy. Helicopters eat up a huge chuck of a news department's annual budget, and in several markets there will be fewer helicopters circling over news scenes. In some markets, such as Chicago and Philadelphia and now Denver as well – one of the news helicopter capitols over the years – stations have worked out arrangements to pool their aerial coverage from a single, shared helicopter.
In the months following the crash, the parents and sisters of television photojournalist Jim Cox started The James Alan Cox Foundation for student photographers.
This last December the Cox Foundation gave out their first awards, a high-end digital still camera to five high school winners, and $2,000 scholarships to three college winners.
Read about how the news helicopter industry is responding to safety considerations.
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