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Julie Dehardy slightly injured

G

gordontalk

Guest
If you haven't heard yet, the helicopter that carries channel 4's Chip Wagner and Julie Dehardy had to make an emergency landing this morning due to engine failure. It sounds like the same type of problem that John Wolf had a few years ago. According to Chip Wagner, everyone should be okay. He said that they were a bit concerned about Julie, but her injuries were minor.
So have any of you who read this board ever been up before? I know that Mike Shannon does traffic, however I don't ever remember hearing him in the air before. Also does anyone know if channel 4 owned that chopper?
 
Apparently the chopper belongs to Metro/Westwood One/Infinity/CBS, and Fox-4 leases it from them. Laura, Monty and Randy Fuller are in separate air units, and thank God, weren't part of any of this. For me, I do fill-in in the chopper here and there (and scheduled for next week...ugh...imagine what's running through my mind right now...)
 
I wonder what channel 4 will do now? It might be a while before Chip Wagner feels comfortable going back up again. It was less than a week ago that channel 4 was covering the crash between two choppers in Phoenix. Also what does Scot Wallace do? Channel 4 usually has him covering breaking news, however I'm wondering if he was the pilot this morning?
 
Gordon said:
Also what does Scot Wallace do? Channel 4 usually has him covering breaking news, however I'm wondering if he was the pilot this morning?
Click to expand...

A back-up pilot, Curtis Crump, was at the controls. He's also a chopper pilot for the Fort Worth Police Department.
 
Update: Chip and Julie were taken to Methodist Hospital to be checked out...Chip with a hurt shoulder, and Julie with a cut to the head. BTW, our other reporters Michael Scott and Justin Frazell weren't involved. I understand it takes up to 3 months to order a new chopper and get it decked out in colors and with radios and such, so those folks may be out of commission for quite a while.
 
Well Scot Wallace still has his chopper and has been on channel 4 this morning covering things. So I'm sure that they will go up with him if they have to wait for their new unit.
 
Julie and Max Miller were in a chopper a few years ago on the south end when someone smelled smoke. The Pilot landed next to a highway.
 
Right. I believe that was in 2003 or '04. Ben Laurie was on board, too, IIRC. Seems like it was on 35 south of I-20. That was considered a "hard landing," which is what they're trying to call this, but the earlier wreck was nothing compared to this.

The other recent one was the hard landing on April 11, 2002, near Midway and Royal Lane. John Wolf, Starlene Stringer and Perri Reavis were inside, and piloted by the late "Chopper Dave" Meyer.

Strangely enough (and correct me if I'm wrong,) but all the helicopter crashes and hard landings in the last 30 years involved KVIL reporters. May 20, 1977 where Suzie Humphreys had just been dropped off moments before the crash; Oct 9, 1979 where Suzie was involved in the crash, the April 11, 2002 (above, with KVIL's Perri Reavis,) and now today's with Julie DeHarty. You might also recall the traffic PLANE crash into an Arlington apartment building on April 10, 1985...that one involved reporter Kelly Owen, who survived but still has some health issues even today.

Oh, and to add to the weirdness, Chip and Julie were taken to the area's only hospital where a helicopter crash occurred...Careflite's 9/3/2003 event on the hospital's roof.
 
There have been times when the Dallas/Ft. Worth traffic copters and planes have gone down, but I don't recall any reporter loosing their life over the accident, mosts of the reporters I remember walked away from the incidents... mostly inpart to the flying abilities of their pilots... NOW I do remember a few accidents where the pilots were lost, and of course the channel 8 copter that went down in 1981 outside of Waco where Tom Cummings and his wife were killed--- but the last incident I recall where KVIL's bird went skidding along Midway Road and Royal Lane, again, great flying by the pilot...

I am very thankful that everyone WALKED away from this... I hve had the pleasure of knowing Julie DeHarty since 1989 and Chip since 2003... both are great people... and do a great job...

A pilot once told me... any landing you can walk away from... is a
good landing!


Just a thought!

Dave Michaels
 
KDFW's chopper crashed on May 12, 1986, but not in this area...they were doing a 'tour across Texas' in honor of the Sesquicentennial, and news ops manager Buster McGregor and pilot Irvin Patrick were killed over the Guadalupe Mountains in west Texas.
 
Pilot Elliot Cohn was killed in the May 1977 crash of the KVIL helicopter.
 
Davradio2 said:
Any landing you can walk away from... is a good landing!
Click to expand...

Amen, Dave. God Bless all these folks who literally risk their lives every day just so we can get to work and home a few minutes earlier.
 
jdean said:
Pilot Elliot Cohn was killed in the May 1977 crash of the KVIL helicopter.
Click to expand...

I had totally forgot about Pete Cohn, thank you for the reminder, and again, as BenB said... its amazing how we take this gig for granted, as a listener.... we sometimes forget that when you are in an aircraft day in and day out, that sometimes, things can and have gone terribly wrong! I am again, grateful that those who I know, that do this work, are OK, and were able to walk away from it!

Just a thought!

Dave Michaels
 
Indeed glad everyone is okay. Those chopper doors ( for the most part) are thinner than a Volkswagen Beetle door, wit the the same little latch to open it. Imagine going pretty fast ,and around buildings over Dallas,and briefly on your side to turn. If you like rollercoasters, no problem,if you don't,well... I prefer the fix wing,but one day we had a light go on and had to set down at what was Red bird airport. It seems a duck somehow flew in front of us and chipped the prop according to the pilot. So God Bless Julie and the others. "He"certainly was their Co-Pilot in light of what happened recently in Phoenix
 
To clarify a couple of things:

1. This was not "Sky 4" - the bird that Scott Wallace flies. This was Metro Traffic's helicopter. Fox 4 just pays to have it painted with its logo. In fact, Scott Wallace was flying over the wreckage in Sky 4 at 8am talking about the situation.

2. The pilot was not a "back up" pilot for this helicopter. He is full time with Metro and a part time or back up pilot for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.
 
Does Chip Wagner get paid by KDFW or Metro? Also is sky-4 always up during all news casts? I'm wondering why they don't save money by simply using Sky-4 to do their traffic. And is Sky-4 owned by Fox 4?
 
OH MY GOD! This is twice that Julie has had a close call. In between her stints here in Dallas she was in Virginia, I think, and was reporting from a fixed wing plane that went down on the freeway shortly after take off one morning.

I actually hired Julie at Traffic Patrol Broadcasting around 1990 for her first traffic job. She was working at Chili's with Laura Houston (WBAP)and they both gave up their glamorous waitress jobs to fly in helicopters reporting traffic. I don't know but I bet that waitress job might be looking pretty good about now.

I've flown in helicopters for years and never, knock on wood, been involved in any inncedents. But there but for the grace of God go I.

I believe that the helicopter was owned by Helicopters, Inc. which does have a history of mechanical issues and there was a lot of concern a few years back when they began providing helicopters for the local media.

It really is a dangerous job, but somebody's got to do it and it's actually fun most of the time.

Thank God the pilot kept a cool head and was able to set er down and everyone walked away.

Chip, Julie & all. I hope you can stop shaking soon and I'm really glad everyone is okay.

Allen Free
 
The KVIL chopper crashed in Spring 1977 just after dropping Suzy off at Northpark pad...it was heading across University Park and fell in someone's backyard from what I was told...the next KVIL chopper incident was one in which they did a "hard landing" with Ben Laurie onboard...that was in the afternoon. I remember because I had just done a shift on the AM and Larry was on the air when it happened. There were some serious "nervous moments" until we found out what really happened.

Of course I had Chip's job before him in the Metro (Fox 4) chopper...he's a terrific guy, both personally and as a broadcaster. I remember when we were auditioning people to replace me (I went to ABC) and two or three other people came up with us and after Chip, I called them and said "don't send any more, he's your guy". They hired him and he's done an incredible job. I hope this doesn't spook him out of the chopper. Those of us who have done it know it is a dangerous job but can be a heck of a lot of fun too. I had a blast doing it and yes, there were a few times that gave me a shake but, you know, you have to live your life, you can't live afraid. At least that's the way I look at it.

As far as SKY 4 goes, they usually aren't up in the morning unless something big is going on. They would always ask us to fly over any breaking story and give them video or a report. This morning I am sure they called Sky 4 to get in the air and cover this. If you were watching 4 this morning in the initial moments, they initially took chopper video from WFAA which is fairly unusual, but in the circumstances, nice of 8 to offer it to them.

My heart just sank when I saw that chopper on the ground...thank GOD they are all okay.
 
Let us not forget the "Telecopter 8" crash in the early 80's. I believe the pilot was flying low to the ground due to fog between Waco and Dallas and hit the chimney of a house killing himself and a photographer coming back from Austin IIRC.

I remember that Dick Siegel had to auto-rotate down to the ground the first day he was on/in the air with WBAP. I think chopper pilots are required to do that from time to time,but I sure would not want to be in the passenger seat when it was happening.
 
Most of the time the local TV stations do not even mention that the other stations exist. I have watched reports on all the stations today and have been glad to see the shared video between the stations. All the reports have given completed details as to who was in the Helicopter and how they are being taken care of. All the reporters seemed to show their concern for their fellow reporters experience.

It's good that Fox 4 shared the video shot from the Helicopter as it was going down, cause I don't think any of the other stations wanted to go out and reproduce it on their own.

I look forward to hearing them all back in the air. (although they never talk about where I am driving)
 
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