L.A. SUV-Bus Crash Triggers News Helicopter Tragedy in Competitive Coverage

On a September afternoon in Los Angeles, a routine traffic collision between an SUV and a city bus set in motion a chain of events that would claim a second, unrelated life. News helicopters converged on the scene in the competitive rhythm that defines breaking coverage in that city, but the crowded airspace above a single intersection proved fatal — pilot George Marciniw, known to his community as Helicopter George, died when his aircraft went down. His death asks an old question with new urgency: at what point does the machinery built to witness tragedy become capable of producing it?