A reader wrote in to make an interesting point – are the news helicopters overhead really necessary on the day after a disaster? After hovering during Wednesday’s fire when the blaze burned fiercely and made dramatic film, the helicopters arrived again this morning at 5 a.m. and returned this evening around 6 p.m.
One of our reporters interviewing the victims today said that a couple of them reacted poorly to any sharp sound – a door shutting, a loud noise from the street. They didn’t need more trauma.
Are the news helicopters looking for more photos of the disaster scene? Perhaps they could contact Eddie Codel (@ekai) who sent us a silently collected drone’s eye view of the scene.
But then again, perhaps we don’t understand the needs of local television. Those in the helicopters above would you like to elucidate?
Is this for news footage? You have live news at 6 or 7am, and again at 5pm, and again at 11pm. They always expect to have live footage of whatever is going on, even if it’s just the roof of a burned building in the dark.
The helicopters are ghoulish, and SO noisy. I called 311, and was referred to the FAA in Lawndale–Southern California. Will a complaint to them help? Should someone set up a petition via change.org?
Why 4 or 5 helicopters, instead one one? Why 5AM and 7PM yesterday? Why not drones?
Helicopters hover over the Mission before marches & sports events; they hope for riots & the thrumming of the blades may encourage them.
What will happen to Mission Market Mall’s wonderful butcher, and the Thursday Farmer’s Market?
Does the city have a program to help those who lost their housing?
How about a website where newly homeless folk can post what they need, so others could help out? Occupy Sandy had such a website, like a wedding registry–you could sign up to buy fans, or generators, whatever.
Well I will just say one thing! Helicopters can be annoying with their noise but should anyone need to be evacuated quickly from somewhere its a helicopter that will probably do it..so think again!
No, I don’t think the helicopters were necessary but I also don’t think that should equate to an outright ban to be sensitive toward the victims. You are living in a major, highly populated city–noise is simply a price of that lifestyle. I don’t get hung up when the crowds spillover from Mission Street and drunk people wake me up at 2am, I think you just have to live and let live. Worth noting that if people didn’t tune in explicitly for the helicopter views there would be no demand for the stations to justify it.
I despise the sound of helicopters over the Mission. They always mean one thing only: a disaster.
The helicopters are horrible, I really didn’t understand the 5 am arrival today. All complaints should be made to the FAA. Google ‘quiet quiet SFO’.
Thank you Lydia! What are the fuel costs of having a helicopter hanging in the air for hours? In any case, yesterday’s fire is a tragedy for the loss of life. Thank god more lives weren’t lost. It is also, though obviously to a lesser extent, a tragedy for the loss of life as it has been known for decades in the in Mission. To say that this building and its businesses were a lynchpin of the Mission community is not an understatement.
Today is a very sad day for me.
I hear the helicopters all the time and they are very annoying. I’m sure others in the Mission feel the same way.
YES. I AGREE!!