A Philadelphia TV station says the deaths of its helicopter pilot and photographer are “devastating.”
WPVI-TV reports the pilot was 67-year-old Monroe Smith of Glenside, Pa. and the photographer was 45-year-old Christopher Dougherty of Oreland, Pa.
They died Tuesday night when their helicopter went down around 8 p.m. in a remote area of Wharton State Forest in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.
The pair had been working with the TV station for years. The station said they “loved what they did.”
Dougherty is survived by his wife and two daughters. Smith was a retired Army pilot with a young grandchild.
“Our hearts are just broken for these men. They’re broken for their families,” reporter Katherine Scott said on air. “We just can’t believe this has happened.”
Pete Kane, who is a retired news photographer knew Smith since high school and they had previously worked together.
“We had the same goals,” Kane told the station. “That was to do the job the best we could do it. And I think we both did that. He did it till the end.”
Reporter Maggie Kent said, “They are described as the best guys that you would want to know, on the job for decades. They are highly skilled in what they do. They loved their craft.”
The chopper was leased by U.S. Helicopters Inc. based in North Carolina.
The company released a statement calling the men “cherished” employees: “We deeply sympathize with their families and share in their grief as a result of this tragic event.”
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation into the crash.
The crash is the second deadly incident involving a TV news helicopter in a month.
In November, a pilot and a meteorologist who worked for a North Carolina television station died when a news helicopter crashed along a Charlotte-area interstate, the Associated Press reported.
In that incident, police praised the pilot for avoiding crashing into the road as the chopper went down.
In July 2007, two news helicopters collided over Phoenix. Both pilots and two photographers were killed in that crash.
