Both helicopters from local TV stations went down in a grassy park in central Phoenix and caught fire Friday afternoon. No one on the ground was hurt.
TV viewers did not witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground, but they saw video from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio.
Killed on board the KTVK helicopter were pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox, the station reported. On board the KNXV aircraft were reporter-pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak, that station said.
A Federal Aviation Administration investigator was at the crash scene by late Friday and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were expected to arrive Saturday.
The helicopters were covering the police pursuit of a work truck. Just before the collision, the driver had jumped out of the nearly disabled flatbed pickup and carjacked another truck. The man was later taken into custody by a SWAT team after barricading himself inside a house.
Just before the picture broke up, Smith said, "Oh geez!"
Police identified the suspect as Christopher J. Jones, 23, and said he was booked into jail late Friday night on two counts of vehicle theft, four counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and one count of resisting arrest with other charges expected to be filed later.
Earlier on Friday, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris suggested the suspect could "be held responsible for any of the deaths from this tragedy."
The two helicopters came down on the lawn in front of a boarded-up church at the park. Firefighters swarmed to the area as thick black smoke rose from the scene.
Rick Gotchie, an air conditioning contractor, was working nearby when he noticed the helicopters overhead. He said they began circling closer as he continued watching, and one appeared to get too close to the other.
"I kept saying 'Go lower, go lower,' but he didn't," Gotchie said. "It was like a vacuum. They just got sucked into each other, and they both exploded and pieces were flying everywhere."
