The poster I was replying to was arguing that the stations should be charged with something (he didn't say what) to teach them a lesson.
Don't put words in my mouth.
I never said charge them to teach them a lesson
I said if the driver on the ground can be held responsible ,because the accident was a consequence of his actions , then the stations should also be held liable because the accident was a consequence of their actions
Surely there is some sort of FAA regulation about
not hitting other aircraft
or
hitting the ground uncontrollably
.
There is no editorial reason why a single helicopter sending pictures to the 5 stations, each providing their own commentary couldn't be used, and still allow them to act on different angles of the story. Having
5
copters following
1
car is just ridiculous.
These choppers don't just cover breaking news. They cover other stuff as well, things that some TV stations do not want. It is impossible to coordinate.
Sorry, but it's very easy to co-ordinate. If one company has a chopper on the scene, they share their pictures with the other companies, who can then choose whether to take them or not. If they're all covering different stories (or exclusives?) fair enough using your own helicopter, but when one car is being chased with all 5 choppers following it there is a slight over resource going on. How many different camera angles can you have of a car chase? Obviously not enough, as two wanted to be in the same place.
WW Update posted:
Well, if two jetliners collide, the airlines are not charged either -- unless they broke the law. The poster I was replying to was arguing that the stations should be charged with something (he didn't say what) to teach them a lesson.
In the UK there are literally hundreds of regulations which must be followed by camera helicopters, including:
- Not coming within 100m of any other aircraft at any time
- Not coming within 50m of the ground unless landing or taking off, or with ground support to ensure public safety.
Failure to comply with those regulations is a criminal matter and the pilot can loose their license if found to have broken them. I would imagine similar regulations are in place in the US, aiming to stop this exact type of tragedy.
I should just state, I'm in no way blaming the copters crews for this accident, nor the driver of the stolen car (not innocent of several things, but definately innocent of causing a mid air collision). This tragedy is entirely the responsibility of the managers and editorial teams who believed that it was neccessary and newsworthy for there to be 5 copters in the same space.
Surely there is some sort of FAA regulation about
not hitting other aircraft
or
hitting the ground uncontrollably
.
There is no editorial reason why a single helicopter sending pictures to the 5 stations, each providing their own commentary couldn't be used, and still allow them to act on different angles of the story. Having
5
copters following
1
car is just ridiculous.
These choppers don't just cover breaking news. They cover other stuff as well, things that some TV stations do not want. It is impossible to coordinate.
Sorry, but it's very easy to co-ordinate. If one company has a chopper on the scene, they share their pictures with the other companies, who can then choose whether to take them or not. If they're all covering different stories (or exclusives?) fair enough using your own helicopter, but when one car is being chased with all 5 choppers following it there is a slight over resource going on. How many different camera angles can you have of a car chase? Obviously not enough, as two wanted to be in the same place.
WW Update posted:
Well, if two jetliners collide, the airlines are not charged either -- unless they broke the law. The poster I was replying to was arguing that the stations should be charged with something (he didn't say what) to teach them a lesson.
In the UK there are literally hundreds of regulations which must be followed by camera helicopters, including:
- Not coming within 100m of any other aircraft at any time
- Not coming within 50m of the ground unless landing or taking off, or with ground support to ensure public safety.
Failure to comply with those regulations is a criminal matter and the pilot can loose their license if found to have broken them. I would imagine similar regulations are in place in the US, aiming to stop this exact type of tragedy.
I should just state, I'm in no way blaming the copters crews for this accident, nor the driver of the stolen car (not innocent of several things, but definately innocent of causing a mid air collision). This tragedy is entirely the responsibility of the managers and editorial teams who believed that it was neccessary and newsworthy for there to be 5 copters in the same space.
They don't use choppers just for breaking news. They also use it to cover other things, things that will be considered as fluff as well. Sports news also requires choppers (at least for 3TV). It is impossible to coordinate.
They don't use choppers just for breaking news. They also use it to cover other things, things that will be considered as fluff as well. Sports news also requires choppers (at least for 3TV). It is impossible to coordinate.
Please explain to me exactly why it is impossible for five tv stations in the same area to co-ordinate between themselves which on of them is going to send a chopper to follow an event which they are all covering.
If there are 5 choppers doing 5 different jobs, that is completly different to having 5 choppers doing 1 job. One can't be coordinated, the other can.
They don't use choppers just for breaking news. They also use it to cover other things, things that will be considered as fluff as well. Sports news also requires choppers (at least for 3TV). It is impossible to coordinate.
Please explain to me exactly why it is impossible for five tv stations in the same area to co-ordinate between themselves which on of them is going to send a chopper to follow an event which they are all covering.
If there are 5 choppers doing 5 different jobs, that is completly different to having 5 choppers doing 1 job. One can't be coordinated, the other can.
We are talking about 1 chopper doing 5 philosophically different jobs, which would be the case, if this comes to be.
Surely with only one car involved, there is only one job?
We are way beyond talking about helicopters covering police chases. For god's sake, we have been talking about things outside of car chases for some time now. Get with the program if you want to argue.
I'm genuinely curious as to why it would be impossible in both the case when this accident occured, and in similar cases in the future (might be a building fire, car crash / chase, riot), for the tv companies involved to co-ordinate between themselves the use of 1, 2, 3 or more choppers to cover the story, without risking the lives of those in the choppers and those who live below where they are flying.
