A helicopter carrying a WTVF-Channel 5 cameraman illegally entered restricted airspace and endangered emergency workers on the ground in order to film the crash site of a Navy jet, federal and state officials have charged.
The Federal Aviation Authority has accused pilot Michael Brooks and his employer, Nashville-based Helicorp, of violating federal air-safety rules when Brooks carried the cameraman into restricted airspace and hovered low over burning debris shortly after the crash of an F-14A fighter near the Nashville Airport in January. The crash killed both Navy crewmen and three people on the ground.
Brooks, who could lose his license as a result of the incident, told the FAA that his radio failed during the flight and that he “was under a lot of pressure to perform due to the gravity of the situation.” Brooks declined to explain his statement to the FAA, but Helicorp president Francis Guess said he assumes the pilot meant that he was trying to help Channel 5 and flew into the crash site so that cameraman Al Cobb could get the shots the station wanted.
The most serious FAA allegations charge that Brooks illegally flew into the “no flight” zone around the airport without permission from air traffic control and that he operated in a congested area above “crash/rescue operations” without radio communications. FAA documents obtained by the Scene under the federal Freedom of Information Act indicate that air controllers tried repeatedly to contact Brooks to order him out of the area as the helicopter hovered “approximately 50 to 100 feet” over the point of impact. Brooks’ actions “carelessly endangered life and property,” according to the FAA’s findings.
“No one with any sense” would fly into a disaster area without a working radio and without permission, said an FAA investigator familiar with the case. The investigator alleges that the only reason Brooks flew into the area was so that Channel 5 could be first on the air with film of the crash.
“This is nothing more than a television station wanting to be there first,” the investigator said. “It wouldn’t be the first time that a helicopter pilot gets punished because a passenger asked him to break the rules.”
During the flight, Brooks carried not only a Channel 5 cameraman but Helicorp vice president Roger Danner, who happened to be at the airport and was just along for the ride, according to Guess. Danner, the son of multimillionaire Ray Danner, former head of Shoney’s restaurants, once owned the helicopter company, which Guess bought in 1993. Guess, a successful businessman and a well-connected Republican, is executive vice president of the Danner Company, which manages Ray Danner’s private investments, and he serves as a director of the Danner Foundation. Roger Danner, a licensed helicopter pilot, would not talk about the incident.
Guess said he does not believe that the helicopter was hovering 50 feet from the ground, “except when it was descending to land.” He said that the helicopter landed near the crash site so that the Channel 5 cameraman could hand his film of the crash site to station employees.
The FAA has made an initial determination to fine Helicorp $10,000 for the air-safety violations. Helicorp’s attorney, C.K. McLemore, said the company has requested a hearing, scheduled Oct. 10, to try to settle the matter. Brooks, who faces separate charges, said his case “may end up in federal court” and declined further comment.
Both McLemore and Guess emphasized that, regardless of the importance of the news story, it is the pilot’s responsibility to comply with applicable air-safety regulations.
Odds and ends
An air bag exploding at 200 mph with the hardness of a boxer’s glove may, in fact, have been responsible for the death last week of 5-year-old Frances Hill Ambrose following an auto accident near her West Meade home. But that hardly justifies the unintended cruelty of a front-page statement in Friday’s Tennessean. “Experts say,” wrote reporter Linda Moore, that “if Frances had been in the backseat, properly wearing a seat belt, she might have had only minor injuries.”
But the experts quoted in Moore’s story didn’t say that. One made the generalization that children are safer in the backseat than in the front, but no one speculated about the Ambrose accident. No reasonable person would.
Frances Ambrose was wearing a seat belt and was strapped in the front seat beside her mother, according to the police report. If her death publicizes the potential danger of air bags, perhaps the overplayed newspaper and television stories surrounding the accident will serve some purpose. But there is no excuse for implicitly blaming the victim’s mother for doing what millions of careful parents do every day. A dart to Moore for not finding another, and more accurate, way to make her point, and a laurel to Channel 5 anchor Chris Clark, who departed from his prepared script during a newscast to point out the unfairness that Moore failed to see.
♦ If you think that gamblers, crooked cops, and East Nashville political bosses are long gone, read Bill Carey’s profile of Nashville gambler and influence peddler Jimmy Lewis in last Sunday’s Tennessean. In a remarkable interview, Lewis, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to federal gambling charges and income tax evasion, talked about his vending machine business and extensive real estate holdings throughout Nashville. The man whom prosecutors once called a gambling godfather also discussed his connections with Jim Everett, Fate Thomas, Rip Hornbuckle, Bill Boner, Gale Robinson, Ray Bell, and other past and present political bigwigs. A laurel to Carey, whose story weaves business, politics, crime, and history and reminds us that our roots are showing.
To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (244-7989, ext. 445), call him at his office (252-2363), or send an e-mail to hwalker@bccb.com.
