Four folks lost their lives getting an audience in Arizona the live scoop on a police pursuit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_re_us/helicopters_collide

I've been watching some of the live coverage on the web. The TV stations are claiming the guy who was being chased on the ground "caused" the choppers to go down. Perhaps, they got it backwards. Maybe too many choppers in the air trying to outdo each other caused the choppers to go down. Unbelievable.

Interesting spin -- pardon the morose pun -- by the television stations, but they are -- pardon the morose pun -- dead wrong.

If our media outlets were truly serving the public, they would share footage and flight expenses in situations like this one.

Imagine Portland's four helicopters covering four different breaking stories at the same time and leaving the ratings war up to the writers. I bet that would make 'em keep their pencils sharp.

Helicopters require a pilot to control five things at once. A pilot has four limbs, so he is already at a disadvantage. If these million dollar tripods simply had a proximity alarm, it would make our skies much safer, but only if it were heeded.

In the end, constant communication between the pilots could have prevented this entire tragedy. Often, the eyes are not enough.

Unfortunately, sometimes they are listening not only to the control tower and other traffic, but the news director, the reporters on the ground, the cameraman on board with them and the police scanner. They also steal glances at the monitor, instead of staying focused on the sky.

What if they had collided with a police chopper? Or impeded a rescue? This stuff does happen folks. Katrina victims were not helped by taking their pictures without dropping water or food.

There is a word for this when you sell medicine and cars with the suffering and risk of others: Exploitation. No surprise, moments later, they are eating their own.

Competing for dibs on danger is a very stupid game. The city was initially put at risk by the police with a high speed pursuit, but media could have made this a very very very tragic evening in Phoenix. It was only fate that put these two birds down in a park.

I feel absolutely terrible for the families, peers and friends of these four talented folks.

Little, I'm not sure that the news media should be bringing supplies to Katrina victims -- should the media be compensating for the President's ineptness? A conflict of interest?

No cameras and covering up the station logo would be the right way to aid victims.

On the other hand, what about spotting a lost hiker?

Back on topic, this is a capitalist-based society, in persuit of the mighty dollar, news chopper crashes happen.

I agree that they might not have been able to save anyone in New Orleans, but since they were flying with Uncle Sam's fuel, they could have chucked something waterproof and small, like water bottles, to folks who needed it and had chipped in taxes.

I love the good things whirlybirds do -- and I come from an aviation family -- so I would not want to ground them all. I just think that common sense should always prevail in the skies. This adage was probably coined the night after Icarus' fateful flight:

"There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots."

The potential for good often outweighs the risk in many undertakings. The trouble only comes when dollars are more important than people.