Thursday's helicopter crash on the roof of Spectrum Hospital was one of the biggest breaking news stories we've had in Grand Rapids in quite some time. When something like this happens, the Fox-17 newsroom kicks into high gear-- it's a true team effort to cover a story as big as this.
11:00am is typically a pretty slow time in our newsroom. The morning show crew is wrapped up, the dayside reporters and photographers are out on their assignments, and the afternoon group hasn't come to work yet. I usually get there in the afternoon, but just happened to be there early Thursday, to shoot next week's Back Story.
I was sitting at my desk when I heard the female voice on the police scanner say "helicopter down at Spectrum". I looked up at Chris Koops, our Assignment Desk Manager, who stood up, turned up the volume on the scanner, just as she repeated what we had both just heard. Koops yelled "Tim!" (our News Director Tim Dye) who ran out of his office,and told him to start getting people in to the station, then looked at me and said, "let's get on TV".
I headed to the studio, while our engineers punched up our tower camera that showed the heavy black smoke pouring from the wreckage on top of the hospital. Within minutes, we were on the air, showing the scene as I talked over it, describing what had happened-- but very few details were available.
Koops was scrambling: he had to monitor the scanners, send crews to the scene, and call people at home to get them to the station ASAP. (he's amazing- most of us would lose our minds if we had to do what he does).
Meteorologist Jon Shaner was running hand-written notes into the studio with any information he could get to me. (at one point he said "I'm so glad you're here, otherwise they'd stick me on the anchor desk!")
Exec. producer Chris Pantaleo was the first one at the station (along with his parents, who happen to be visiting from Detroit!). As soon as I heard his voice in my ear, I thought, "okay, Pants is here, things are under control". We were getting more information by the minute, but in these situations, it's tricky to sort out what's been confirmed by officials, and what witnesses are saying. I did a live phone interview with a father who was on the 8th floor when the chopper crashed-- his daughter was being treated there.And that's when I realized that the top floors of the building where the heli-pad is located is DeVos Children's Hospital's Pediatric critical care unit! Can you imagine being a parent of a sick child, and have this added to it?
Theresa Rashid was our first reporter on the scene, and called-in a live report over the phone. That's when we learned that the pilot and the FAA official had survived the crash-- a miracle.
During this time (all in about an hour) the rest of the news crew had been called in: Carl Apple (who was in Ottawa County on a different story and saw the black smoke) was now on the scene... Lisa LaPlante and Dan Krauth were sent downtown as soon as they got in.
It was truly 'all hands on deck', and the newsroom was buzzing. Christian came in (on his day off) -- he and I did another hour of live cut-ins, then everyone re-grouped with a meeting to decide 'who' was doing 'what report' for the 10 o'clock news.
That's when we had a breather, and each person had their own story to tell about that morning: Mike Avery was at the gym, saw the live pictures on a TV monitor, called the station, and all Koops said was "get in here!!" and hung up. The voicemail messages from Koops were pretty funny... and one producer's story about how he broke all kinds of records (and laws!) driving to the station was hilarious. ( as for me-- I'm not exactly known for being on time for work, so the fact that I was already in the station was a huge bonus!)
In all-- the situation that at first looked so devastating, and could have been so tragic, turned out better than anyone could have hoped. Our police and fire crews were so quick to respond, and everything was under control so quickly-- what a test for the city of Grand Rapids!
And a test for us, too, as we were able to cover this from all angles, letting people know what happened, and what they needed to know about getting around downtown.
The story isn't over yet-- and of course we'll bring you all the information at 10:00 and on our morning show.
Just thought you'd want to know what goes on behind the scenes when something like this happens.
-Michele