When Good Reports Go Bad June 16, 2008

 

By Dan Rice, Chopper 4

 

On Friday, around 6:20 a.m., we attempted to do a story on a water main break on Southbound Route 17 in New Jersey. As we were getting ready to do the report, Teterboro Airport’s control tower made us move away from the scene because we were too close to the arrivals. We have two of the best pilot’s in the industry flying Chopper 4, Lars Andresen and Randy Empey. If you were able to see some of the maneuvers they have to do to keep the helicopter skids or the engine exhaust of the helicopter out of my shots, your jaw would drop.  It still amazes me!  On Friday the control tower moved us as the report began. Normally it is no big deal because I can shoot behind the helicopter. Unfortunately Randy did not realize we were on the air.

 

I started the report by explaining why we were moving and then got into the water main details.  As I was talking, Randy finished with the control tower and realized I was into my report. Being the perfectionist he is, he did not want to see the skid creep into the picture. He decided to turn the chopper quickly to the right. The camera ball has a limit to how far it can tilt up and we found out where that is on the air on Friday. As a result, the picture went crazy during the report.  Hopefully, I made sense of the report after that. Poor Randy spent the next couple of minutes apologizing as I was laughing. I told Randy that I do not mind seeing skids in the shot. It is a part of the chopper and it will happen from time to time. We spent the rest of the flight laughing!

Wall Of Fame June 10, 2008

By Dan Rice, Chopper 4

 

Old Bridge High School held their Senior Awards Night on Thursday. It is a ceremony where 204 Seniors were awarded over $600,000 in scholarships. As part of this ceremony, the school started a new tradition of inducting alumnae into their brand new “Wall of Fame.” My wife, Shannon, was one of the six inaugural inductees.

 

The “Wall of Fame” is intended to showcase successful students who have passed through the Old Bridge Township school system. Inductees’ pictures and biographies will be placed on the wall for all of the students to see.

 

The administrators decided to hold this event on the Senior Awards night to help inspire these young men and women as they head off to their new lives. It was a way to show these young men and women that people just like them, who walked the same halls and sat in the same classrooms they are sitting in, can find success. The inductees were from all walks of life: a local farmer and business man with deep family roots in the town, a Newark police officer, a successful lawyer, a highly accredited doctor, a liaison to Hollywood celebrities and a New York City TV helicopter reporter. As we sat there watching the ceremony I kept thinking of how this was such a great idea.

 

Being a senior in high school is one of the most confusing times for a kid. My wife talks about how her sister knew from the age of four that she was going to be a doctor. Today she is a world-renowned surgeon. 

 

My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to pursue as she entered Rutgers University. There is no doubt that, not only some of the kids on the stage, but many of the other 3,200 plus kids who go to Old Bridge High have some confusion where they are going with their lives. To have to the opportunity to read success stories of former Old Bridge residents and to be able to talk to some of these people face to face has to inspire these young people. It is something that I think all high schools should look into doing.

 

Good luck to the class of 2008 and a big congratulations to the Old Bridge High School “Wall of Fame” inductees, especially to my wife!  And, if anybody from West Morris Central High School is reading this…

Helicopter Story Doesn’t Ring True June 10, 2008

By Dan Rice, Chopper 4

An article written in the New York Post by Bill Sanderson caught my attention. It recounts the story of the Baca family from Louisiana, along with another couple, who were on a sight seeing helicopter tour from the West Side to the Statue of Liberty on May 29. According to the Baca family, one of the doors opened during the flight. A woman screamed while her husband grabbed the door handle and held it shut until the chopper landed. Sanderson quotes the pilot as saying “this happens all the time.”

The article unfairly paints Liberty Helicopter as a reckless company that places people’s lives in danger. I fly regularly in Chopper 4, which has had some rough patches over its history. But writing stories that shock and scare people is both unnecessary and wrong.

Sanderson wrote that the flight “turned into terror at several hundred feet” over the harbor. In my experience, a door is not going to swing open when a chopper is cruising along at over 100 knots. I don’t think the door on the Liberty helicopter was swinging open like a screened porch door. However, I’ve had doors open while I was in a helicopter. A door can swing open from the aircraft when the chopper slows for a landing. Even if a door does open, all passengers should be seat belted into the aircraft and that would keep them from falling out.

Incidently, there are choppers out there that fly without doors. Look at the Bell 47 (a civilian version of the chopper you see in the television show M*A*S*H). I flew in the old Chopper 4 with the back door locked in the open position. Trust me, it was a fun way to fly in a chopper!

I understand how scary that pop can be to people who are not around helicopters for a living. Does it mean the helicopter and the people on board are facing immediate doom? No.

I have no personal interest in Liberty Helicopters, but I don’t agree with a story that unfairly makes them into a pariah. There’s no need to scare people in a city where we’ve had terrorists fly jets into skyscrapers, a recreational airplane fly into an apartment building and cranes fall off of skyscrapers.

The article said the “terrified” passengers continued on their sight seeing journey in the same helicopter after making a pit stop to have the door fixed. The passengers’ flight was extended with a trip to the George Washington Bridge. This incident couldn’t have shaken them up that badly. Most people would have requested a different helicopter at the very least. Personally, I would have enjoyed the flight more without the door.

Please post your comments or you can e-mail me at dan.rice@nbcuni.com .

Right Stuff For ‘Today Show’ May 19, 2008

By Dan Rice, Chopper 4

 

I am not a fan of the New Kids On The Block.  I did not like them when they were on top of the charts and I do not like them now. I like some of the movies that Donnie Wahlberg has been in.  I enjoyed watching Joey McIntyre on “Dancing With The Stars.”  Jordan Knight was on the same “Surreal Life” season that rejuvenated the career of Flavor Flav. Overall, I find this group to be annoying with not a whole lot to offer as far as entertainment is concerned. 

 

I was very confused when I learned a few weeks ago that the “Today Show” wanted Chopper 4 to fly for the first two hours of the program to show a large crowd. Normally the “Today Show” will use us for concerts where they expect a large crowd. I didn’t think they could fill half the plaza for these guys.

 

On Friday, I did my first report over an accident on Eastbound Interstate 78. I called the newsroom and asked them where they wanted us to go next. I was told the control room wanted shots of the huge crowd for the concert. At first I thought it was a joke. After all, there were plenty of stories to chose form to go cover and I do love to go on the air and talk. However, they were serious.

 

Randy, the Chopper 4 pilot, and I were approaching the Plaza and noticed the stage was on the West 48th Street side of the plaza instead of by West 49th Street.  There was hardly anybody there. I started to laugh!  However, as we got closer, we saw a small group in front of 30 Rock.  Then, we saw some people by the windows of Studio 1-A.  Then, I saw it …the line!  It started at the corner of Rockefeller Plaza and West 48th Street, stretched to Fifth Avenue, up Fifth Avenue and around the corner onto West 49th Street where it ended at the corner of Rockefeller Plaza.  The line was packed and they were all waiting for the New Kids On The Block.  Unfortunately, low clouds began to cover the city and we had to leave at 7:05am. We never did get to see, from overhead, how big that crowd got to by 8:30 a.m.

 

I have covered many of the concerts the “Today Show” has put on over the years. I have seen huge crowds for popular stars. I was over the Ricky Martin concert that was referenced throughout our newscast Friday. I have to admit, this is probably the biggest crowd I have seen on the Plaza, or, at the very least, it ties the Martin concert. The people who produce this at the  “Today Show” certainly know what they are doing and what to expect. This also proves I do not have a future as an entertainment critic and Rob apparently has better taste in music than I do!

You can post a comment or leave me a message at dan.rice@nbcuni.com.

Vanity Plates March 25, 2008

Dan Rice, Chopper 4

This morning Cat Greenleaf did a story about a man obsessed with vanity license plates.  She even showed a few plates from people who work on the newscast.  This immediately made me think back to when I first met my wife.

It was May 1996 and I was working for Metro Traffic doing reports from one of their airplanes.  Shannon was hired to replace me as I moved on to their helicopter.  From the moment I saw her I was in love!  She still is the most beautiful woman I have ever met.  Of course I figured I had no shot at dating this beauty.  However, as the morning went on, I started to gain confidence.  At the end of the shift, I walked her out to her car.  The first thing that caught my eye was the vanity plate, “12MPRES.”   Talk about a confidence killer.  Not only is she hot, she knows it!   After thinking I had no chance of being with her, I started to get mad.  I thought, ” Who the hell does she think she is?  She’s hot and full of herself!  Who needs that?” 

Well, she must have caught me staring at the plate because she explained to me that the plate was the name of her horse, One To Impress.  For years Shannon and Onie (pronounced “oh’ – knee,” it’s the horse’s nickname…don’t ask me where it came from) competed in several shows and competitions and won hundreds of trophies and ribbons!  She loved the horse like a child and wanted everyone to know this. 

I was very relieved that she was not some kind of narcissist and my confidence came right back (although I never acted on my feelings and she wound up asking me out a few weeks later…I wasn’t exactly Mr. Smooth!). By the way, we still have Onie. Instead of competing in shows, he has become more of a pet and my daughter’s best friend!

Birds Eye View Of Crane Collapse March 19, 2008

By Dan Rice, Chopper 4

It is amazing how a seemingly quiet Saturday afternoon can be shattered in an instant. For me, I was in Sam’s Club with my wife and kids when my NEXTEL chirped followed by Peter Bunin on the assignment desk telling me I had to fly. For many residents on the East Side, it was the sound of twisting metal and concrete being crushed by a construction crane.

We were the first news chopper to arrive over the scene and even I was not prepared to see what we saw. I have covered many crane accidents over the years.  Usually there is relatively minor damage. Occasionally there is death involved. I have never seen the amount of destruction nor such a large area of destruction that was caused by this accident.

When we arrived, the first thing that stuck out to me was the damage to the apartment building on the south side of East 51st Street, across the street from the building under construction. The entire southeast corner of the top floor had been leveled. Then I saw the tower of the crane leaning on a diagonal against the north side of the apartments. I still didn’t see the crane that should have been atop the tower. I tilted the camera down and saw a piece of the tower sticking out of an alley on the north side of East 50th Street. When I zoomed in with the camera, I saw a column of windows to a four-story building next to the crane’s tower.

That’s when we realized that it wasn’t an alley. The tower had leveled an entire building! We followed the tower piece up and found the crane still attached, resting half way between East 51st and East 50th Streets. The pieces of the puzzle finally started to come together in my head and I knew that the tower had snapped when it struck the apartment building and had to have done some sort of roll in the air to land the way it did. I just sat in the chopper in shock for a minute.

The more I looked around the block, the more I realized the magnitude of this accident. I saw debris lying on a building next to the accident site. I saw debris that had smashed onto a roof on the south side of East 50th Street. The upper three floors on the southeast corner of the six-story building adjacent to the smashed building on East 50th had a gaping hole, exposing people’s bedrooms. Cars in front of the bar in the crushed building were either completely flattened by debris or had somehow been overturned. Firefighters, rescuers, police and other people were on virtually every rooftop within a half-block radius of the accident site, either searching for people or debris or inspecting for damage. Outside of 9/11, I do not remember seeing so much destruction and such a large emergency response to one scene.

Seven people lost their lives. Even though any death is an unfortunate loss, I am amazed that there were not more deaths and injuries. I have heard more than one person say, “Imagine if this had happened a few hours later when the bar was open,” or “Imagine if this had happened during the middle of the day during a weekday!”  I shudder to think what could have happened.