Gathering More Than News

Helicopter-borne news people take their share of knocks--sometimes for good reason. Whenever there is a major news event, particularly a tragedy of some sort, the choppers hover and swoop over the scene like so many gnats, potentially interfering with rescue efforts. Pilot-reporter Bob Tur is known for irritating some by his low-level buzzing of the wedding of celebrities Sean Penn and Madonna, and was cited by the Federal Aviation Administration for flying too low over the plane-crash site of the late Dean Paul Martin--an allegation that Tur denied.

But the news choppers can be good Samaritans in a pinch, too, as Tur demonstrated at the height of Sunday night’s storm when he landed his KNX News Radio craft time and again to rescue people from a Redondo Beach hotel being battered to pieces by gigantic waves.

The former paramedic commented, “When people are in trouble, you help. That’s the way I was brought up.” It didn’t hurt that Tur is an expert pilot of more than a little daring. In all, he evacuated 50 people during 13 trips over an hour’s time. That figures out to 26 pickups and landings in virtually zero visibility and rain driven by winds of up to 50 m.p.h. Not a bad hour’s work.