Helicopters Used for News Coverage

No, I was watching KTLA and it zoomed out wide, but ABC7 had the entire thing with him going down, getting up, and going down again.

Also, Stu Mundel is the nicest guy, follows me on Twitter now weirdly. Always good to talk to and posts some nice behind the scenes stuff - recommended!

(Also if you ask nicely he'll give you a shout out from the helicopter )

I watched the end of the chase as well on KABC site and I was a bit suprised they were so tight on the suspect. Especially when they saw him digging around in that bag. I had a feeling it wasnt going to end well at all. Oh LA. What a mess you are.

There apparently was a motorcycle chase here in Baltimore today that lasted for an hour. Unfortunately it ended when the woman driving lost control at a backed up traffic light. Apparently she slid under the car and the motorcycle reportedly flew 40 feet.

Also with this horrific tower block fire going on in London I'm wondering why the news helicopters haven't been deployed. The current vantage points are a bit far back. But with the long lenses they helicopters can get up close while being a safe distance away. Praying that there aren't any fatalities.

Presumably because it was night time. No doubt there will be chopper pictures this morning. Flying a helicopter at night over a residential area is only going to attract complaints.

Yep there was live helicopter footage on the BBC earlier.

I wonder how easy it is for them to request a helicopter in the middle of the night?

And expensive, and as discussed with other recent events, there's a tiny audience overnight, I'm not sure
it would have been terribly appropriate to have seen the trapped occupants in any form of close up too ?

I switched on BBC Breakfast just after 07:00hrs one of the choppers were providing pictures.

I know one of the individuals who are nominated to receive the phone call to discuss, and yes, he's been woken up in the middle of night recently

There was at least one helicopter over the scene from soon after the fire broke out (I could see the fire from where I live) - so I doubt noise was a major consideration in this case (though it may be an overarching one).

I'm not sure you need close-up pictures to see an entire tower block engulfed in flames.

Sure they are one way of telling the story and providing a 'live holding feed' - but the US obsessions with helicopter coverage is always a bit bemusing this side of the pond.

As we know - and many of us feared - there have been fatalities, and some very distressing pictures of people trapped in their flats have been broadcast (which is a questionable decision)

Any (and every) helicopter over the scene would also have been interpreted by some who were trapped as a rescue effort, so having a TV one there is just compounding and extending the distress even further.

Here's a question. Pretty quickly a major incident was called on this tragic incident.

As it happened 'in the middle of the night' so to speak, does that in newsrooms put out an alert to more senior editors, to come in and help out?
I know places like Sky and the BBC have experienced editors rostered on overnight shifts in any case, but would the numbers swelled slightly to cover this, once the enormity was unfolding?

Not sure what happens in terms of staffing but in such an event it's more important to have extra producers rather than senior editors. They're the ones who actually process and produce the content that's seen on air