So close to making it home safe.
“Every day we are sending news teams with the best equipment available....” said CTV News president Robert Hurst. “This is our daily work. It is somewhat risky, but we try to mitigate the everyday risks the best we can.”
I wasn't going to comment on choice of a small helicopter for filming as it is not clear if it has any bearing on the accident, but the above comment by President of CTV, in response to the death of an employee, begs the question, was the aircraft chosen the "best equipment available"?
Were other helicopters which are better suited to filming available in the area?
As a side note.
The right hand seat location for the cameraman would have made it more difficult for him to operate because (if he was using his regular camera) the viewfinder is on the left side of the camera, so one has to twist around or lean forward to be able to put the camera on the right shoulder so it can clear the bulkhead.
This position makes it more uncomfortable or impossible to have a tight seatbelt.
There are ways to operate a hand held camera from the right hand side with a tight belt but these techniques (resting camera on ones knee) are generally not used by news crews reacting to a news story.
Also, in a very tight cockpit and adjacent the pilot, handling a pro size camera with the left wrist in plaster is not ideal, especially when trying to react in an emergency.
It adds up to a hard days work that ended in tragedy.
Mickjoebill