Media Helicopter Pilots
Whilst I haven’t been media flying for some years now, I remember the imposition of arbitrary TRA's, especially by local police, as a regular topic I had with Police Media Liaison as a Chief Pilot. Admittedly it was some time ago and I hope thing as have changed.
Local police seem to have been more ready to slap a TRA on a scene with the express purpose of restricting the media. That was obvious when we arrived on the scene after obtaining approval through the Police Chain of Command overriding the local cop (usually an Inspector). Finally, they (Police) and the fire authorities learned that it was better to let the media in, appoint a representative to brief them and escort them as required. This kept the media under control at an incident and ensured that the best possible chance of getting the right info prevailed.
I remember landing at an incident near Benalla in Vic at a typical accident on the Hume freeway. Landing 200-300 metres upwind of the scene, the local copper ‘grounded’ the helicopter as it ‘endangered the scene’ as a petrol tanker was involved. (No TRA was established by the way, and it didn’t warrant one either.) The tanker had run off the centre lane into the median grassed area, one lane had been closed with traffic allowed to flow in the right lane adjacent to the overturned tanker. No amount of talking would convince the moron that he was out of line. I new the local Fire Authority Regional Officer who just raised his eyebrows in disbelief. I rang Media Liaison and the situation got shorted. On another occasion we encountered a TRA up to A040 over a murder scene that had media already standing in the street. Once again a local country Inspector.
Not all media pilots get it right every time. I’m included. But if you want to know who are the most apt at CTA work, knowing CTZ boundaries precisely, flying in close proximity to obstacles and other helicopters, operating in high radio traffic environments including at the same time dealing with the phone call from the COS, a media pilot is expert at keeping all the balls in the air at once. If he/she isn’t, they don’t last.
I guess my long-winded point is, don’t lump all pilots into a perception of guilty by association. And more importantly, don’t believe everything you hear from a person who puts a TRA on an incident. All the pilots I flew with in the Melbourne media were experts at avoiding making an impact on any incident they attended.
Geoff Williams