Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

It's been a really bad couple of days for news helicopters. Another helicopter carrying a pilot and two traffic reporters crashed landed after losing power Monday morning in Texas (near Grand Prairie), leaving the passengers bruised but alive. Chip Waggoner, who was reporting for Dallas Fox O&O KDFW-TV, told his station that the aircraft lost power about 7 a.m. and that pilot Curtis Crump was able to make a hard emergency landing. Waggoner said he and Crump appeared to be unhurt, and radio traffic reporter Julie DeHarty was sore but able to walk. DeHarty is the traffic reporter for Dallas radio stations KRLD-AM and KVIL-FM. Courtesy: KDFW-TV

Updated: 8:50 PM To watch compelling video taken from the KPNX chopper of the accident, CLICK HERE -------- It was bound to happen at some point - and today, it did... two news helicopters covering a police chase collided in mid air and crashed in Phoenix, Arizona, this afternoon. Our Gannett sister station KPNX (which did not have one of the two choppers involved in the accident) reports both the pilots and photographers on each of the two aircraft died when the helicopters collided over Steele Indian School Park. The helicopters, as well as those from other stations, were covering a police chase at the time. There did not appear to be any casualties on the ground. Channel 15, the local ABC affiliate, reported that pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were on board their aircraft. Channel 3, the an independent station, reported that pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox were on their aircraft. For the latest information on this story, we refer you to the KPNX ...