From News 5 (KPHO) in Phoenix: 2 News Helicopters Collide; 4 Dead [emphasis mine]:
Two television station helicopters tracking a high-speed police pursuit in central Phoenix collided in midair and crashed Friday, killing everyone on both aircraft.
[…]
Air conditioning contractor Rick Gotchie told CBS 5 News he saw channel 15’s helicopter flying underneath the channel 3 aircraft. He said channel 15’s rotors hit the tail of the channel 3 helicopter. Gotchie said channel 15’s helicopter went down nose first and channel’s chopper crashed tail first.
“The choppers exploded a couple of time on the ground,” Gotchie said. “It was like a vacuum. They just got sucked into each other and they both exploded and pieces were flying everywhere.”
“I was standing out on Central Avenue and I was looking over to the park and saw the helicopters get close,” Jerry Fender, another witness, said. “The blue one split and went down. The red or orange one went right after it.”
[…]
The helicopters were covering the police pursuit of a work truck.
[…]
The man was arrested about three hours later after SWAT officers stormed a home in far west Phoenix where he had barricaded himself.
A SWAT team with canines made a forced entry, police said. The man suffered a number of dog bites and is being treated for the wounds, police said.
[Phoenix Police Chief Jack] Harris said he believes the man will be held responsible for the deaths of the four TV station employees.
What the hell? This on the heels of someone being responsible for a death from an accident forty miles away.
How is the man that was fleeing responsible for helicopter pilots not maintaining proper control of their aircraft?
Hell, in this case you don’t even have the requirements for felony murder more than likely.
Great police chief there for you people in Phoenix.
Hat tip: Overlawyered