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"Chopper 4 is going down."
By
Jen Chung
Published May 5, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 5, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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The biggest local news story was the dramatic, caught-by-other-TV-cameras crash of the WNBC News Chopper 4. The helicopter, which was on the way to cover a shooting in Brooklyn, lost control, crashing onto a rooftop. Amazingly, the three passengers were able to emerge relatively unscathed. The air traffic controller reports that pilot Russ Mowry said, "Chopper 4 is going down. We had a tail-rotor failure." Other news crews, from WABC, WCBS, and WPIX caught the crash, which WNBC later used in its telecasts. A resident in the first building the copter hit (Chopper 4 crashed into one building, then onto another lower one) told the Daily News, "It was freaky, really scary."
WNBC lists a history of related helicopter crashes: In 1986, a WNBC traffic reporter died when the helicopter crashed into the Hudson River. The Times looks at how the crash caused many neighbors to come and watch the tableau. You can see that WABC just says a news chopper crashed on its homepage, and WCBS says Chopper 4 crashed. Gothamist is glad no one was hurt, but we did note that, somehow, the initial story the news crews were reporting on the, the shootings, got lost in the shuffle.
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brooklyn
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the times
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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