Dubious Plane Crashes in the News

Questions, speculations & updates on the techniques and nature of media fakery
guivre
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Dubious Plane Crashes in the News

Unread post by guivre »

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Staged plane crash makes the morning news
By Michael Holtz
Tribune reporter
11:30 a.m. CST, November 30, 2012

As its helicopter hovered above the scene, WGN-Channel 9 broke in with the news this morning that an airplane had crashed onto Martin Luther King Drive on the South Side, breaking off a wing that had skidded down the road and hit a car.

But three minutes later, the station reported back that the crash was actually a scene being shot for the TV series "Chicago Fire."

"We are just getting word that this is being shot as part of a TV show," anchor Larry Potash told viewers.

"Are you kidding me?" said anchor Robin Baumgarten. "They might want to tell the news folks that they're doing this and shutting down King Drive. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? 29th and King Drive, it's OK. It's all for a TV show, even though you see that plane in the road."

Channel 9 news director Greg Caputo said the station's helicopter "was close by and was the first news helicopter to arrive on the scene. Based on police radio traffic, several officers in the area were similarly alarmed that there was a plane crash. We contacted Chicago police, Chicago fire, and the FAA seeking information. All of those public agencies said they had no knowledge of a plane crash. But none of them said that it was a scene from a movie.

"Our previous experience with movies and TV shows filming in Chicago is that they inform the community that something is happening," he added. "Since we had no such advisory, our news team began to describe the scene they could see from our helicopter shot. Other major stations in Chicago were on network news at that time."

Police and fire officials report that other television stations also called them about what looked like a major story unfolding at King and 29th Street, though Channel 9 apparently was the only one to go with the story shortly after 8 a.m.

Jennifer Graves, vice president and news director of ABC-Channel 7, said the station's assignment desk heard about the "crash" between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. She said the station’s helicopter arrived on the scene a few minutes before 8 a.m.

“Within five minutes of getting our helicopter there, we confirmed with the fire department that it wasn’t a real crash scene,” she said.

The Fire Department tweeted this alert after Channel 9 aired the story: "Chicago TV News is reporting a plane down at. . .King Drive this is a filming for the NBC show Chicago Fire and is a simulation disregard"

Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department, said information about the staged plane accident was not widely distributed. "It looks like it didn't get filtered down to everybody." Even some patrol officers could be heard on scanners this morning asking their supervisors about a plane crash.

Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, said his office only puts out media alerts for large-scale productions, like the filming of "Transformers 3" on the Michigan Avenue bridge and Wacker Drive.

"To be honest, 'Chicago Fire' is out on the street filming nearly every day and we didn’t see this any differently than the standard filming," he said. "The local community was notified so there weren’t any surprises there. We notify residents by knocking on doors, leaflets, talking to people directly in the community who live within the close proximity to the filming area.”

Langford said steps will be taken to improve communications. "In the future, I'm asking my people to let me know so I can let the media know. News desks need to know," Langford said. "I'm sure from the helicopter it looked like it was real."

Footage from Channel 9's helicopter showed a white single-engine plane buckled in the middle of King Drive, its left wing hundreds of yards away at the side of the road. It was surrounded by police cars and an ambulance. Several cars appeared to have been hit by the plane.

The station had been alerted by dozens of callers and quickly swung its helicopter over the scene as it made repeated calls to fire officials. Potash and Baumgarten reported what they could see from the helicopter's skycam, at one point noting the lack of ambulances and urgency.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 2241.story

Brief video at link, some of it looks to contradict some points in the article.

It's probably just an innocent case of crossed lines but it shows still how easy it is to manipulate live anchors in a little studio, not to mention passersby -- even in the internet age when people think they know everything.
omaxsteve
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number of recent plane crashes

Unread post by omaxsteve »

This one in February in Florida was a "pretend" crash.. training exercise:
To make it look as real as possible, Lakeland Linder Regional Airport brought in students from a nearby school to play the role of injured passengers.

The students were covered in fake blood, and many looked like they were missing arms or legs.

"We try to be as realistic as possible, that's why we do these things," said Pete McNally, Director of Emergency Management in Polk County.

Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/r ... z2NzleSgCG

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/r ... -disasters

This one was "supposedly" real: Small plane crash into a Florida parking lot 3 people killed on March 15th.
Image
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/03/15/pl ... c-airport/

and this one just yesterday killing 2 and injuring 3 in South Bend, Indiana. airplane crashes into a residential building 2 passengers killed but resident in the house survives.
Image

Looks like the pilot "parked" the plane right in the garage

story here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2 ... ghborhood/

Yet another crash in Georgia less than a month ago February 20th: story here:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/21/sm ... n-georgia/



I don't know the statistics and have not yet seem many photos or been able to spot any fakery, but it "seems" unusual for threesuch crashes happening within days of each other.

regards,

Steve O.
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