Name: Police chief provides update on media helicopter crash that killed two in Charlotte
Uploaded: 2022-11-22T13:48:00-0500
Duration: 386772
Description: During a press conference after a helicopter crashed, killing two in Charlotte, the police chief said witnesses saw the pilot maneuver to avoid hitting cars as the helicopter went down.

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During a press conference after a helicopter crashed, killing two in Charlotte, the police chief said witnesses saw the pilot maneuver to avoid hitting cars as the helicopter went down.

All right, good afternoon, everybody, thank you for coming. Um Just want to give you a quick update at about 12 o'clock this afternoon, charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department received a call for a helicopter crash on I seven on the southbound side. Officers responded to the scene and tragically uh confirmed that there was a helicopter crash as well as two victims who had who were deceased on the scene. Uh Currently, we're still investigating the incident. Uh C. M. P. D. Is assisting in traffic control and the diversion of traffic. Uh We are not able to release information about the helicopter itself and also about the victims that were inside of the helicopter as well. Uh What I can confirm with you is that no vehicles were involved in the in the incident. Uh and that the the helicopter crash occurred off off to the side of the roadway. Uh the NTSB and the FAA will be conducting the investment and the Police Department at this time along with the charlotte Fire Department in Carolina State Highway Patrol will be assisting in securing the scene uh and awaiting the arrival of the investigators for the FAA and the NTSB. Uh So with that, I will take any questions that you might have with the understanding that I cannot uh discuss the victims as well as the aircraft that had uh that has crashed. When you say, you can't talk about the aircraft, you mean like that's correct. It is a helicopter aircraft that is crashed, but however, as far as identifying where the aircraft is from, that is something that we're not ready to release and just ask the respect of the families, we do have to make some notifications. Uh, and that's gonna take some time. Uh, as soon as we get that, that information I'm sure will be released. It's, yeah, it's, it's, it's difficult. It's tragic in that, uh, on top of that, going into the holiday season where uh, we're supposed to be spending time with our loved ones. Uh, and tragically, there are two people involved in this crash that will not be going home, be spending the holidays with their families. So it's a huge loss, tragic loss. And it's just something that you can't put into words uh, uh, offer condolences to the families. We do pray for the families of both of these victims. It's going to be a difficult holiday season. I know it's early right now and you can't speak to the investigation, but are you witnesses? There are reports that witnesses have called some heroics here as to where this helicopter landed compared to where it could have. That's correct. I have heard that as well that, um, it seems the pilot that was operating the aircraft uh, made some diversionary moves to avoid hitting traffic. Fortunately there was no vehicles involved in it. And I think that's uh, as we move forward to me, it looks like a heroic um, uh, incident where the pilot tried to avoid uh, injuring anyone else and putting anyone else in danger. And if, if that is truly the case, then that pilot is a hero to in my eyes to make sure that the safety and security of those that were driving on the road was not in jeopardy. So do you have an idea about how many witnesses there might have been that you guys have been able to? I'm not sure, I know there's a couple that had stayed on the scene, but we're still looking at anyone who was a witness to it. Uh is certainly, I'm sure the NTSB and the FAA is is gonna be uh interested in speaking with those individuals. I don't have information on how to get in touch with with them at this time, but I'm sure that that's something that uh they'll be interested in having that conversation. Yeah, so right now traffic is closed uh 77 southbound between Tavola and Arrowood Road. Uh don't anticipate that opening anytime soon. So anyone who can avoid that area, if that's if that's a route of your destination, uh please that avoid that area and if at all possible because traffic is gonna be backed up for some time. Uh and I anticipated going through rush hour uh and possibly through the night but as investigators arrive, I don't have an estimated time of arrival for them, but as they arrive, we're gonna be looking for the need to continue to have all of the lanes blocked. And if we can certainly open up a lane or to to allow traffic to flow, we will we will do that when possible. But again, as I mentioned, the charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, the charlotte Fire Department and the North Carolina Highway Patrol are assisting in this to ensure that uh, that we have traffic flow and safety of that, of that scene as much as possible. No, this time, there was no indication that there was any type of fire. Again, we looked at heard from some of the witnesses that the pilot did try to avert and to avoid hitting any vehicles. Uh, and uh, from the looks of where the scene was and the crash was, the pilot was successful and not, uh, going into the roadway and hitting any vehicles. So that's certainly a heroic act and and probably saved some lives. All right, anybody else want to thank you very much, You gotta do this again when you might do this again. Maybe like 30 minutes. I have no idea. You know, I think what we're gonna end up doing is um, that's gonna be turned over to the NTSB and the FAA. Uh, really, our investors are part of the investigation is, is more at this point just to make sure we secure the scene, keep traffic flowing and uh, and make sure that they have everything they need as far as when they get here for the investigation. So, I don't know if we'll do another stand up from C. M. P. D. Or not. But if you guys do stand up with the FAA or whatever it would be here, then I have no idea. I don't even have an E. T. A. For when they're gonna be here. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

Mark Bergin

Heather Leah

Police chief provides update on media helicopter crash that killed two in Charlotte

'A heroic act:' Pilot of crashed helicopter maneuvered to avoid hitting vehicles, police say

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I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr a severe weather center. It's been a warm spring so far. In fact, when you look at the spring to date numbers, it's actually the second warmest on record at RDU running about 4.5 degrees above normal and for rainfall about an inch and a half below normal. And we really need some rain. You know, it's been a pretty dry April so far we've seen less than an inch inch of rain this month tomorrow. It's a nice dry day for us, but I, you know, at least it's gonna be a nice day, right? 72 in the Triangle, as well as Siler City in Wilson. 70 in Rocky Mount. 67 though in Roxboro and 67 for Roanoke Rapids, a little cooler to the north. 76 degrees in Fayetteville, 73 Goldsboro in Smithfield and 75 in Southern Pines. It is going to be a little bit cooler in the morning because cold front moved through 50 degrees for the low in the triangle, right around 7 a.m. by 10 a.m. We're in the upper fifties, lunchtime, mid sixties and then in the lower seventies during the afternoon, dinner time, temperatures dip back into the upper sixties. A cold front passed earlier this evening and behind it, we are going to be drying out but cooling down briefly. It's not a huge drop in temperatures, but we will see this dip in the jet stream delivering some cooler air. We start to see a reversal of the jet stream flow and that changes really on Sunday with a warming southwest wind at the surface and at the jet stream level, that's going to drive temperatures up to 80 beginning on Sunday and the eighties will last into next week with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. So we expect a big climb in temperatures just throughout the course of the weekend, 48 degrees Friday morning, but back up to 80 by Sunday afternoon and then much warmer weather is on the way for next week. We're looking at seventies for the next few days with mostly cloudy skies for the weekend days. The sun's back out though next Monday and with a warming wind, we're back in the upper eighties three days in a row all the way up to 89 on Tuesday. Tuesday might be the 1st 90 degree day of the year for parts of North Carolina.

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Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

Police chief provides update on media helicopter crash that killed two in Charlotte

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