A pair of US TV helicopters covering a police chase collided mid-air on Friday, then crashed to the ground in a blaze of fire and smoke, killing all four people on board, police said.
Smoke billowed from the park where the crash occurred in Arizona.
Firefighters and police quickly determined there were no survivors.
Viewers who tuned in to watch the police chase live heard someone aboard one of the helicopters say, "oh geez," before seeing a jumble of images as the live broadcast broke up, US media reported.
The aftermath of the collision between the helicopters, operated by two rival local TV stations, was filmed live by a third chopper for Fox news that was also covering the police car chase.
"Oh my Gosh! Oh my God! Channel 3 and Channel 15 just had a mid-air collision! They're in the park," shouted one of the people inside the Fox helicopter.
The dead included the two pilots and the two cameramen who were shooting video of a white truck that was being pursued by police.
Phoenix resident Ian Pigg, 16, told local reporters he had heard the helicopters flying above, prompting him to go outside of his house to see what was happening.
"Then we heard the pop and the hiss. It wasn't a loud explosion. It looked like the helicopters split in two. Black smoke came straight up," he said.
The flaming debris came down in a park in a populated area, but there were no reports of casualties on the ground.
"There are no survivors," Phoenix police department spokesman Joel Tranter said.
The choppers were from local stations ABC15 and 3TV.
"We are all devastated," an anchor from the ABC affiliate Channel 15 said.
Police said an investigation was underway, and officials from the National Transportation and Safety Board were expected at the scene to help determine the cause of the crash.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS