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.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television