Car thief may face charges for causing TV chopper crash.

Police investigating the car theft which involved two news network choppers colliding whilst they chased the suspect, have stated that the car thief could be charged with causing the helicopter crash too.

Meanwhile, the man suspected of starting the chase was booked into jail on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of theft and one count of resisting arrest.

Christopher Jermaine Jones, 23, also may be held responsible for the helicopter crash, police said.

Source: Car thief may be charged with causing heli crash

Ok i understand this guy was an idiot to do the other stuff he is charged with, but how can he be charged with the collision of these two news choppers?

I could understand it to a degree if this was two police choppers that collided, they are supposed to go chasing after the bad guys. New choppers on the otherhand have no right flying that dangerously.

I see they are also looking into this little matter too..

Investigators plan to check whether the pilots followed Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

The helicopters from TV stations KTVK and KNXV collided as both circled over the chase. Video from other stations showed white smoke trailing the choppers as they dropped into a grassy downtown park and exploded.

As i know very little about flying regulations, am i right in presuming this would be things like "Were the choppers flying the correct distance apart?" and things like that?

Obviously they were'nt flying at a regulation distance if there is such a thing or they would'nt have crashed so thats a no-brainer there for starters.

Then comes the question about should the news networks be charged with flying in a manner that could endanger life, whether that be thier crews or the public?

Something needs to change about the cowboyish way the networks chase these car thieves, IMO it shows very poor journalism and just degrades the news network that shows it.

Getting back to the topic though, how could they charge this guy with the heli crash?

CX.

I said the same thing ...

so if I cut my hand off while watching news ... can I sue the tv station for not paying attention because me watching the programming?

It is an injustice, no matter what the guy was doing. Those pilots were responsible for operating their machinery ... each one is equally at fault ... and the stations should have to pay to care for the families of the camera men and the pilots.

But that is just my feelings on it.

Your right, all this stuff going on about the fellow they were chasing is insane. Cops chasing after someone who has a warrant out and kills three kids, well thats just part of the job. All these chasing situations have to stop, and the reporters who are on top of this should stop as well..News today drives me nuts, anything for a story...yet all we get anymore is Bling reporting on things most of us could care less about. I listen to the radio news most of the time, TV news ..if you want to call it that, is way out there and very much their side of the story.
They were flying too close to each other, you don't need to be a pilot to know that, why? Because this 'Story" was more important than their own lives, insane.

I would say 100% the fault of the pilots. I dunno about flying, but I know that when I drive a car, I am operating a possible death machine....make that an explosive death machine....and I handle it with care. If I were flying a chopper, the same thing would go, I am in control of a flying explosive, with many lives on the line other than my own. The fact that they were chasing some guy means nothing, as the pilots should have paid a little more attention to their own flying and a little less on the guy they were chasing.....as it is up to the camera man to pay attention to that guy. Ofcourse I can picture some fat camera guy shouting orders at the pilots...but it's the pilots call whether or not to listen to his inferior....some dude with a camera.

Seriously if anyone else in the mass media continues to day dream aloud about charging this guy over their deaths my head may explode.

I've never heard anything more idiotic in my entire life.

This country is slipping in a very dangerous mental state.

Dr Kevorkian, paging Dr Kevorkian !

My thoughts as well.

I don't see how they can justify charging the car thief for the deaths.

They would have a hard time proving that the crash was the result of the crime committed.

If they are looking at it as a deterent for the next car thief... good luck with that.

It all boils down to 'pilot error' nothing more, nothing less.

It is STUPID!! They ' reasoning ' behind such garbage is thus: If the guy had not gotten out of bed that day and had not allegedly ( innocent until proven guilty ) violated some law to begin with, then logically it follows that the helicopters would not have been trying to get shots of the scene. THAT is the sole reason to charge him, which they will NOT. It would never get past a court or jury, never.

If a news organization CHOOSES to fly around to get scoops for the news, a profit driven venture at ALL times, the they risk the loss of life and equipment every time they left off. They CHOSE to fly, they CHOSE to operate their aircraft in unsafe manners; they CHOSE their response to a petty car chase and they just lost this time, thats all. Tragic but not the fault of the defendant.

WE had a local case where an obese , out of shape cop tried to chase a car that was running from the cop's; he had a heart attack and died in his car , probably from the excitement and too many donuts and clogged arteries; they tried to charge the driver, who had merely refused to pull over, with his death!! it was thrown out, of course, but the Prosecutors ALWAYS try and stack charges on anyone they can; it means more likley that a plea bargain will result, giving them a conviction, which is the Holy Grail to the Prosecutors. In most cases the cop's overcharge to try and make the event look much worse but when it gets to court it gets whittled down to the real facts.

If I am jaywalking and some cop does a u turn in froint of traffic to come back and write me a ticket, and in doing so crashes into a car, is it MY fault? The cop who screwed up the manuver is guilty, not ME!! Even if I am engaged in some offense, if my INTENT was not to do any harm, then there is NO crime. Intent is the standard of the law; unintentional accidents are NOT fairly laid at the feet of an accused; to do so would encourage even more reckless actions by news choppers, etc.

This is garden variety pilot error and carelessness in the name of SENSATIONALISM " and getting people to watch THEIR station on TV, to mask money, for selfish reasons; they were NOT serving the public interest, but their own. No person should be held acountable for what happens far away, or in the air, as long as they did not intentionally cause the effects shown. To say that all persons who break the law in some way can be tied to accidents or carelessness as the motivating cause is just nonsense and unConstitutional. it will NEVER happen; The charges will NEVER reach a judge and if they do it will be dismissed.

Some people just want to pass responsibility off for their actions to others, or ANYONE that they can; pointing a finger in this case is hard, they have to point it at THEMSELVES for their errors, and NOT at some innocent accused person who had NO CONTROL over the pilots actions and could not have prevented the accident in any way; except maybe by staying in bed all day.

If we as citizens cannot get out of bed lest some accident we have nothing to do with occurs, then we might as well give up and consider ourselves chattel and slaves and having NO rights at all. This is stupid and beyond insane, and will never see the light of day in a courtroom. Just more Prosecutorial blather meant to make the accused seem more dangerous and guilty then he could ever prove in a court; muchg easier to try and sway potential jurors by innuendo and allegation and false decription of the laws that govern accessible crimes and relationships to acidents as far as liability is concerned.