Helicopters and Hazmat incidents

[Just Plain Ruff]

ok, there is a huge fire in kansas city with a chemical plant explosion.

Black black smoke with a smoke plume extending about 5 - 10 miles southwest.

The channel 9 news chopper is flying all around the incident. the Fire department has issued a warning to stay 1 mile away.

The head of the emergency operations center said while he was talking to the news company that runs the helicopter. The pilot said he was going to fly through the smoke and the cheif said "Tell your helicopter pilot to stay a mile away from the smoke. We're watching him"

I wonder what kind of fines this pilot can incur. Any ideas?

New Info::

And now they have done another silly thing. The saw some black substances falling from the sky from the smoke. The pieces are as small as quarters to as large as loaves of bread. One of the newscrews picked a couple of these things up and brought them to the news room. They now get a call from the fire department telling the news people and the citizens to NOT pick this stuff up cause they do not Know what this stuff is.

This just gets better and better.

[jwraider]

BSI precautions and scene safety = not part of the news world apparently.

[Ridryder 911]

As usual, news and journalist thinks and believes that they are above all. The same when our local news helo's fly into tornadoes.. etc..

R/r 911

[Richard B the EMT]

The old NYC EMS Headquarters building had an asbestos problem in a bathroom behind the EMD calltakers. Want to know how I found out?

A WNBC-TV4 (New York City) news reporter went, with camera crew in tow, into the bathroom, flailed at the asbestos pipe covering, on camera, until a dust cloud was visible, and then turns to the camera, and says "This is the asbestos problem at the EMS Headquarters in Maspeth."

I have a "closed without prejudice, subject to reopening" line of duty exposure report on file because of this, as do all personnel then working in that old building.

[Dustdevil]

The head of the emergency operations center said while he was talking to the news company that runs the helicopter. The pilot said he was going to fly through the smoke and the cheif said "Tell your helicopter pilot to stay a mile away from the smoke. We're watching him"

I wonder what kind of fines this pilot can incur. Any ideas?

My idea is for the EOC to stay in their own lane and mind their own business. They have no authority to issue any such restrictions. The news media is well within their rights to put their own safety at risk to do their jobs, just like we do. Screwing with the media is just one of those things that public safety does when the don't know wtf they are doing about the real problem.

Warn them of the risks. If they proceed, that is their business. You have done your job and they are doing theirs.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I agree with you Dust. News media and reporters have long since put their lives at risk. Just look at the reporters from the media in wartime. Many of them don't make it home.

The chopper pilot is one of the best, he can get pictures that no-one else can even come close to getting.

I was just wondering what the fines might be or if there were any.

[Richard B the EMT]

Scenario: Nerve gas plume from tank car. Helo pilot declines emergency ops center order to stay out of area, and flies thru the plume. Pilot suffers effects of the nerve gas, and crashes into an occupied school building, killing self, camera crew, and 30 school children sheltering in the building.

Back in the 1970s, the "dean" of New York City radio station traffic helicopter pilots, one Fred Feldman, broke off in the middle of a traffic report, as he had just gotten an order to clear airspace over a hostage situation he hadn't even known was in progress. (PS: He flew and reported, no second person on the chopper with him) I remember the days of the incident, there was a lot of lead pollution in the air (translation: Shots Fired by and at police!)

If the man who would create the "Shadow Traffic Network" could stop in the middle of giving a live report, why can those who follow not do the same?

In the 1980s, several hundred swimmers in the Atlantic Ocean off the beach in Rockaway, Queens County, vicinity of "Rockaway's Playland", needed rescue, as all got caught up, and pulled out to sea, in a "Rip" current. The news helos swarmed the area, and actually interfered with rescue operations, until the NYPD and US Coast Guard ordered them to either leave the area, land, or they would be shot down! The News-copters all backed off!

So, in my opinion, if anyone risks themselves or others by putting a civilian helo in a civilian area that has potential dangers as spelled out to them by an authorized emergency agency, or the military, and still violates the airspace, start with the pilots losing their pilot's licences, and then impose a hefty monetary fine.

[logos]

The FAA has the authority to put in place "temporary flight restrictions", I doubt the emergency management agency does, however. This is what the FAA does over football games, fireworks displays, missle launches etc. I dont know a whole lot about it, not being a pilot, but i'd bet you could get the FDA to put up a TFR in an emergency unless there is some FAR rule against it.