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[Most TV stations use Cal-Trans ground cameras and the reporters nosily hover over homes while describing the scene from the caltrans camera. Unless the stations take some positive actions to reduce noise then a boycott of the TV Helicopter stations advertisers might be in order.]
After reading "Up in the air" (April 3), I could only wonder why all these news stations haven't chosen to pool their resources together and just put up one or two helicopters at a time. And why do they need to fly so low with all the high technology they have now?
Plus, they wake us up as early as 5 every weekday morning just to show us the same information we can get from news radio [Note most of the commuters that need the fast breaking traffic data listen to radio and do not watch TV in their cars] that has the resources of freeway-imbedded traffic monitoring from Caltrans and their own army of cell phone travelers -- us.
And I forgot to mention all the traffic cam's mounted all over our vast freeway system as well. Enough is enough. Nobody needs to see a stalled car in traffic from a helicopter. Journalism lived without helicopter sensationalism for years; we can do without it again. For sure we don't need a dozen, now do we?
Wayne Williams, Sherman Oaks
[Another risk for residents and motorists under the flight path]
VAN NUYS By not declaring an in-flight emergency, the pilot of a news helicopter that crashed at Van Nuys Airport increased the danger to people on the ground, a fire official said Tuesday.
Pilot Kris Kelley had lost all hydraulic power while she was flying for KTTV-TV Channel 11 over the Shrine Auditorium after Sunday night's Academy Awards. Fire officials said Tuesday she asked the Van Nuys control tower for a priority landing but didn't declare an in-flight emergency, which would have prompted firefighters to mobilize around the landing pad.
Another news helicopter pilot who was escorting Kelley said she declined his offer to call for emergency crews. After the crash, it was a cameraman, Aaron Fitzgerald, who dashed to the flaming wreckage and dragged Kelley and her passenger, cameraman Phil Arno, to safety.
Kelley's decision "put more people at risk," said Capt. Paul Quagliata, head of the Van Nuys Airport fire station, who also questioned why Kelley flew 15 miles back to Van Nuys instead of landing sooner. "It's like if you recognize the brakes on your car are out, you stop driving and get off the road," Quagliata said.
Kelley, 33, of Thousand Oaks was in stable condition Tuesday at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and unavailable for comment.
By Lisa Van Proyen and Harrison Sheppar, Staff Writers
VAN NUYS -- TV cameraman Aaron Fitzgerald didn't think twice about running through a pool of jet fuel with flames nearby to rescue another cameraman whose news helicopter had just crashed.
"I was thinking I need to get him out of there very quickly. I didn't know if the whole thing was going to go up in flames," Fitzgerald said Monday, a day after plucking Phil Arno from the burning Aerospatiale AS 350B helicopter.
Kris Kelley, 28, the pilot of the crashed helicopter, managed to lift herself out of the wreckage. But Arno, a 40-year-old cameraman for KTTV-TV Channel 11), was trapped beneath debris and the helicopter's camera systems and sitting on fuel that spilled out after the helicopter rolled onto its side.
After pilot Larry Welk landed his helicopter beside the downed chopper, his partner -- KCBS-TV (Channel 2) cameraman Fitzgerald -- ran toward the wreckage, tore off the chopper's fiberglass roof and lifted Arno from the pile of debris.
"It was one of the most heroic things I've ever seen," said Welk, who used his chopper to light up the rescue scene for Fitzgerald. "I'm telling you it was divine intervention. The whole helicopter should have been engulfed in flames."
Both Kelley and Arno were recovering and in stable condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center late Monday, hospital officials said. Kelley escaped with a broken pelvis, knee and wrist. Arno was in the intensive care unit being observed for a concussion and a shattered ankle.
Kelley and Arno, a cameraman for Channel 11, were filming the Academy Awards scene at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday. Kelley works for Helinet, a helicopter operator at Van Nuys Airport that contracts with five Los Angeles stations to provide aerial news and traffic coverage.
About 10 p.m., Kelley reported having problems with the copter's hydraulic system, said George Petterson, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. "It's similar to the power steering on your car, only there's more resistance," Petterson said Monday.
Welk and Fitzgerald, who were free-lancing for Entertainment Tonight and still had about an hour left to film the Oscars, heard Kelley's distress call and immediately put down their camera to escort Kelley back to Van Nuys Airport. Welk, who said he is familiar with training for the copter Kelley was flying, flew alongside her craft, calmly guiding her through an emergency checklist.
"I made all of her radio calls for her and cleared traffic for her so she could pay attention to the steering," Welk said. "She was doing everything by the book."
Bob Tur, a former news chopper pilot who now works as a safety consultant for news stations across the country, questioned whether Kelley should have been approved to fly this particular helicopter in the first place. Tur, who said he has about 8,000 hours flying A-Stars, said the helicopters require significant upper-body strength to handle if the hydraulic system fails.
"This woman who flew the helicopter is very small -- she's about 5-foot-2. She doesn't have the upper body strength to handle the failure of the hydraulic system," he said.
He added that upon noticing the problem, Kelley should have landed at the nearest airport, either Santa Monica [or Burbank] or Los Angeles International, rather than trying to make it back to Van Nuys.
"When you're in a jam flying, you have to accept you're in a jam and you have to know when to call for help," Tur said.
Helinet Vice President Dave Corsello dismissed Tur's statement as "preposterous." "That's not true at all," Corsello said. "It's a technique issue; it's a maneuver issue. It does (take strength) but it's also technique and the ability to negotiate it."
He said Kelley had plenty of training in hydraulic procedures during her formal pilot schooling as well as additional in-house training the company provides. "She was pretty well-trained," Corsello said. "She did a very good job to get it where it was." [Here is LAFD's comments Kelley's decision "put more people at risk," said Capt. Paul Quagliata, head of the Van Nuys Airport fire station.]
"They're both going to live. They're both going to come back to work. She's great. She's doing fine. She's a little sore -- obviously a couple of broken bones. She's going to recover."
Welk said he was most concerned about Kelley getting fatigued during the 10- to 15-minute flight. And he said Kelley opted to go the few miles farther to Van Nuys Airport because that's where her own mechanic is based." Whether you're a man or a woman, you get fatigued," he said. "I don't think gender plays a part in it."
As Kelley tried to land at Van Nuys Airport, Welk knew she was going to have problems, he said. He asked her to try again, but it was too late. "There was a critical few moments. The helicopter went around in four revolutions. It was turning like the teacups at Disneyland. It was a horrifying sight for me. There was such a sense of helplessness," he said.
Then the nose pointed downward and the chopper crash-landed, with the fuel tank rupturing and igniting into flames, Welk said. "A huge fireball came out from the bottom," he said. "I thought, There's no way they survived. I was heartbroken." Suddenly, he saw Kelley escape from the wreckage.
"I was brought to tears," he said. Then Fitzgerald sprang into action. "Aaron only had seconds to get to Phil to see if he's alive," he said.
Van Nuys Airport officials on Monday praised Fitzgerald and others for their heroic efforts. "They demonstrated a tremendous amount of bravery and courage in assisting these victims without concern for their own lives," said Charlene Klink, [A PR person] an airport spokeswoman.
Van Nuys is the region's most popular location for news media helicopters because it allows them to avoid the large commercial airliners at LAX or Burbank Airport, said Stacy Geere, [In charge of public relations] a spokeswoman at Van Nuys Airport. [Van Nuys airport has 13 part time/full time PR persons and 1 full time noise person]. There are 10 media helicopters based at Van Nuys, including the one that crashed.
"Safety is and will continue to be our No. 1 concern in operating Van Nuys Airport," Geere said. "I think the pilots show tremendous skill in landing the aircraft on airport property."
Petterson of the NTSB said a preliminary report on the crash should be available within five days.
The incident renewed calls from neighborhood activist Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, to limit flights of news helicopters out of Van Nuys. "There are far too many helicopters flying out of Van Nuys Airport over residential properties and homes," Silver said.
For several years, Silver has been seeking a curfew on helicopters flying out of Van Nuys, prohibiting flights between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., a practice he said is followed at Santa Monica's municipal airport.
Silver said it is fortunate the incident did not happen over a residential neighborhood, but said with the heavy volume of flights, "It's only a question of time till that happens. Then people are going to ask the questions. It's too bad we have to wait until there's serious fatalities before we do that."
According to National Transportation Safety Board records, helicopters from Helinet's corporate predecessor, West Coast Helicopters, were involved in two fatal crashes and two noninjury incidents since 1993
I read a letter to the editor ("Flight Decisions" Sunday, January 23) from reader James E. Foy, chastising the thousands of homeowners who prefer that 100% of the planes not now be diverted over their homes to the west, [this would take the noise away from Burbank and over North Hollywood and the Valley] as Burbank City Council Mayor Stacy Murphy has proposed.
His letter points to a "handful of hard-core anti-airport activists." However, it's clearly the reverse. If the reader has been to any of the public forums on the airport expansion, he knows that the meetings are overwhelmingly against Mayor Murphy's plan to ban easterly takeoffs. At least 90% opposed with 10% of pro-airport lobbyists in favor.
I do agree with Foy's assessment that the pilot should make the decision about departure direction for safety reasons. But by directing all the flights east, don't you risk removing one of the pilots' "safe flight plan" options to the west? They've flown west for years, why is it suddenly impossible now? During Santa Ana conditions easterly takeoffs are actually preferred. Stacy Murphy has take this decision out of the hands of the pilots and put it in the hands of politicians . . . hers.
ROBERT RHINE Valley Village
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