Do unnecessary news helicopters in the sky risk the lives of citizens on the ground, all for entertainment

Of course, what happened here in Phoenix was tragic.and avoidable..they were all jockeying to get the best view of the perp on the ground, Needless death resulted because the public loves live action shots. Shame on all

EXACTLY!!! Excellent Points.

They r just as much Paparazzi as the motoguzzi photographers who chased Princess Di for sensationalism. A car chase for goodness sake is certainly NOT news, & there were 3 (not counting 2 police choppers for a total of 5) NEWS choppers vying for the REALITY NEWS SHOW that CNN & FOX has become. What else in the world is happening? There must be SOMETHING worth dying for to report to the world, such as GENOCIDE, Starvation, DESPOTIC AFRICAN LEADERS, Heroes in the Congo. something besides another angle of a car chase, or Paris Hilton, or that other drunken Ditz, Lohan. sad commentary

The what if is are pretty big there..

you bet ye,

My condolences for the 4 lost lives first and foremost. But I was thinking when I saw the news yesterday of this..Thank God no one on the ground was injured or killed. I guess for me I do not quite understand why a high speed chase is such big news. Something needs to be done to make the skies safer in situations such as this one for sure.

No it does not. News helicopters go up in the sky and provide this live to alert the media where not to be and be aware of the incident so this way the citizens can be safe and know what is going on.

Calling this incident ''unnecessary'' for news helicopters is stupid. Stupid people would think that this incident in Phoenix is not journalism. The pilots and photographers are also journalists in case you did not know.

many cities' law enforcement DONT have their own 'ghetto birds' so they rely on news choppers.
for every hour one is in the air, it requires 1 1/2hrs of maintenance

They're do important jobs but I think that they need to report only serious and emergency conditions.

Yes, saw it happen while we were watching the world wide cycling champs wiz by. it was so close I do not think the pilots even knew how close they came to each other. Happens all the time in San Diego private planes and commercial aircraft

the sky down there is getting mighty crowded.

They have no right to endanger lives but they do .

Yes I agree with you. Hopefully something will be done about ALL unnecessary helicopter trips such as tours of Hawaii and other non essential rides. I have known too many that died that way

No, i do not think any of them r unecassary, there doing a very important job, & it is important for them to be up there for everyone, they can see faster & further, & have better camera angles if anything were to go wrong on the ground, they have the shot of proof. News Helicopters r very crucial to the news, I can see if they were always crashing into something, but it is pretty rare, they r professionals, & though they r it may happen, but so r cops, & any gov. vehicle, they still crash.. it is something that just very unfortunatly happened, every job that has something to do with moving a piece of metal around people & buildings is & will be a risk no matter what. I have so much respect for those ladies & gentlemen up there, there bringing something very important to us all, news would not be as good with out them, the make up a good percent of news. so I guess to answer the question I do not think it is unnecassary to have them, I am thankful.

News helicopters perform a valuable service in reporting traffic conditions, and spotting people on the ground that may be lost or running from the law. The likelihood of a crash is minimal.
Are you opposed to people driving cars to go out for an evening is entertainment? They are much more likely to cause an accident and are also wasting fossil fuels.

Perhaps there should be a pool camera instead of each station putting up their own.