![]() The 2007 crash also resulted in other news chopper safety precautions, including painting a highly visible stripe pattern on the helicopters’ rotors so that they may more easily be seen from above and adding bright strobe lights to avoid a collision with other aircraft. The NPPA declared that “pilot/reporters who appear live on camera in the sky should not do so unless accompanied by a co-pilot or a trained observer on board to help avoid collisions.” In many markets, prior to the 2007 Phoenix crash, pilots flew the aircraft while also delivering traffic reports on air. In 2009, the National Press Photographers Association endorsed recommendations that news helicopter pilots no longer report live while they are flying the helicopter, which was not uncommon at the time. Those two helicopters were two of five aircraft covering a police chase. A 2007 chopper collision in Phoenix sparked an industry conversation about news helicopter safety. ![]() News helicopter crashes are rare these days, partly because there are fewer aircraft in the air than there were in the early 2000s, but also because some high-profile crashes led to newsrooms increasing their safety standards. Tayag explained how pilots make decisions in bad weather. In January 2020, Tayag was on the air after NBA star Kobe Bryant died in a chopper crash. The helicopter was a 1999 R44 Robinson aircraft. And many of us have been in that helicopter with Chip.” And we feel lucky to be with people that we work so closely with, in such an intense career and to like our co-workers as family.” She said, “Chip is a long long-time pilot for WBTV, he is actually through a contractor company, but he has been here a long time and he is an experienced pilot. WBTV’s Molly Grantham added, “You often see us hashtag post #wbtvfamily, we are a family. Every single day in this newsroom, Chip would wave at you, say ‘hello,” ask you how you are doing.” He added, “Jason Myers, he would bound through this newsroom with incredible energy and smiles and just cared about everybody.” And those smiles you see right there on the screen, those are those two people. And he was going to pick up Jason and they were going to head out. He had just landed and he was about to go back up. I see their pictures here today, I walked in this morning, it was just after 11 o’clock, and Chip was on the pad outside the station inside the helicopter. We have been holding on to this for a while. ![]() until the employee’s families had been notified.īoll said, while breaking the sad news, “The words are hard to come by, folks. The station said it held back from reporting about the crash until just after 3 p.m. Shaken colleagues who were reporting the crash on the air said, “It is a heavy day at WBTV.” And he just continued that steep bank until boom, he disappeared out of sight.” But then on his second pass, I knew that something was not right. “He’s really banking that helicopter around to get a shot of something. … Whoever the pilot was, did their best to put that thing down where it wasn’t going to injure a lot of people, and in that respect, they did a fabulous job.” He continued, “It looked very aggressive,” he said. And if that truly is the case, then that pilot truly is a hero in my eyes to make the that the safety and security of those that were driving on the road were not in jeopardy.”Ī witness told WCNC TV, “I think that he absolutely knew that he was gonna have to put that down,” the man said. “Fortunately, there were no vehicles involved in it and I think as we move forward, to me it looks like a heroic incident where the pilot tried to avoid injuring anyone else and putting anyone else in danger. ![]() “It seems the pilot that was operating the aircraft made some diversionary moves to avoid hitting traffic,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Johnny Jennings said. Reporter Shevaun Bryan said as soon as the newsroom got word that a chopper was down, a panic set in. “There are not that many helicopters in Charlotte. “It took us a while to figure out it was ours,” anchor Jamia Boll said Tuesday. The crash occurred just after noon on Tuesday near Interstate 77. Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, say that a WBTV pilot acted heroically when he guided his helicopter away from traffic as the aircraft crashed and killed both the pilot, Chip Tayag, and a station meteorologist, Jason Myers. ![]()
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