ABC15.com staff
Two news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided and crashed to the ground on July 27, killing all four people on board.
Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire.
Killed in the crash were ABC15 Pilot Craig Smith and Photojournalist Rick Krolak.
Also killed in the crash were 3TV pilot-reporter Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox from NewsChannel 3.
Krolak had worked at ABC15 for 9 years.
Smith had been with ABC15 since September 2005. His dog Molly, who was frequently up in Chopper15 with him, was not with Craig at the time of the crash.
A memorial continues to grow near the site where two news helicopters crashed, killing all four people aboard.
Mourners are dropping off flowers, candles, stuffed animals, notes of condolences and signs honoring the four television journalists at the entrance to the park where the crash happened.
"It's hard to believe," said Anna Morales, 29, who cried and held her daughter's hand while looking at the memorial.
Signs remembering ABC 15 pilot Craig Smith and cameraman Rick Krolak and Channel 3 pilot Scott Bowerbank and cameraman Jim Cox faced quiet onlookers.
"Thank you for your courage," one read. "We will miss you," said another.
Ken Trahan is gathering signatures for a petition to erect a permanent memorial at the park. As of Sunday night, he has collected 120 signatures for the petition. He has also developed the website, phxmemorial.com, where he is posting information about the memorial petition.
Federal investigators have finished removing wreckage from the park. They spent several hours Sunday wading through water in a pond near the crash site.
In the water, investigators recovered a helicopter door from ABC15's chopper. They also recovered a pair of binoculors, maps and bearings.
Officials from the NTSB say the wreckage from the crash will be laid out at another location in the Phoenix area for detailed examination over the next few days.
The NTSB is also searching for witnesses of the crash and have announced a telephone hotline for people to call in information.
That number is 202-314-6000.
The two choppers came down on the grass lawn in front of a boarded up church at Steele Indian School Park.
Police have identified the suspect at the center of the police chase as Christopher Jones, 23, and said he has a criminal record and is on parole.
Jones was booked into jail late Friday night on two counts of vehicle theft, four counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and one count of resisting arrest with other charges expected to be filed later.
Earlier Friday, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris suggested that the suspect could "be held responsible for any of the deaths from this tragedy."
Rick Gotchie, working in a nearby building, was watching the beginning of a tragedy he could do nothing to stop.
Two of them began circling closer, Gotchie noticed, and one appeared to get too close to the other.
"I kept saying go lower, go lower, but he didn't," said Gotchie, a Phoenix air conditioning contractor.
In one of the helicopters, ABC15 Pilot Craig Smith saw the driver get out of the first truck.
"This may be the end of this thing," he said on-air. "OK, now it's a foot chase."
Police were trying to stop the motorist from leaving in the second vehicle when Smith's helicopter and Channel 3's collided.
"Oh geez!" was all viewers could hear Smith say as his broadcast broke up in a jumble of spinning, broken images.
Witness Mary Lewis said she was stuck in traffic with her four grandsons and was watching the helicopters, turned to talk to the children, and then saw a fireball in the air when she looked again.
"I looked up and I see this 'boom' and I see one of the helicopters coming down, and I said, 'Oh my God,"' Lewis said.
She said she went to the crash site to help.
"It's nothing there," Lewis said. "Just burned-up stuff."
Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in Washington, said the group does not track fatalities among helicopter news pilots, but she could not recall another example of two news choppers colliding while covering a story.
"These pilots, they are very professional. They combine the skills of pilots and skills as journalists," she said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilots of the five news helicopters and one police chopper over the chase were not talking to air traffic controllers at the time, which is normal.
"Typically air traffic controllers clear helicopters into an area where they can cover a chase like this," Gregor said. "Once they are in the area, the pilots themselves are responsible for keeping themselves separated from other aircraft."
Pilots generally use a dedicated radio frequency to talk to each other and maintain their positions, Gregor said.
"There is a high degree of coordination," Gregor said. "To fly for a TV station you have to have a commercial rating, which means more (flight hours), more training."
ABC15 Photojournalist Jeff Cochran was close friends with Rick Krolak.He was one of the first people at the scene."It's too weird, too close to home," he said.Another ABC15 photojournalist, Jim Fry, sat on a cement stump and stared into space between live shots at the scene."It could have been anyone," Fry said.Stay with ABC15.com for updates.
Aerial view of Phoenix, Arizona. Map of the United States, highlighting Arizona
Four people are dead after two news s crashed in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States. The helicopters were covering a high-speed chase within the city, when, at the same time as the suspect left his car in order to carjack another car, the two choppers inadvertently crashed into each other. Wikinews has learned that the two helicopters belong to independent TV station  (Channel 3), and ABC affiliate  (Channel 15).

There is still no word on an exact cause of the collision, however, the  is reviewing tapes to see if the helicopter pilots were communicating with air traffic controllers at the time.

On a tape of radio transmissions from the Channel 15 helicopter, pilot Craig Smith (of KNXV-TV) can be heard asking, "Where's 3? Like how far? Oh jeez", followed by "3, I'm right over you. 15's right over you."  Moments later, the sound of the crash was heard over the air on Channel 15's signal, which then went to static.