He'd flown helicopters during the Vietnam War, and later in New York City for WABC-TV, as a news pilot, brought viewers close to countless horrific events: the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Staten Island ferry crash and the recent steam pipe explosion in Manhattan.
But on Sunday evening it was doing something
comparatively safe - standing on a midtown sidewalk - that put Paul
Smith in harm's way. Police say Smith, 60, of West Islip, and his
wife Donna, 55, had just left a restaurant when a taxicab jumped
the curb and ran over him.
Smith was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center where he was pronounced
dead on arrival. Yesterday, his wife remained there in stable
condition with a fractured leg. A 7-year-old boy had his arm broken
in the crash, police said. It was not clear whether he was related
to Smith.
No charges have been filed against the driver,
who tested negative for alcohol.
Police were reviewing security cameras and investigating the
accident, which took place at Third Avenue and East 40th Street.
They said the cabbie said he was swerving to avoid another car.
The driver, Mohammed Chowdury, told reporters last night he was
forced off the road by a black car that cut him off. He had been
driving a cab just five weeks, he said.
As word of Smith's death continued to spread among friends and
co-workers yesterday, many recalled a talented pilot keen on safety
who shoveled his elderly neighbors' driveway and was close to his
two grown sons and wife.
"No one's doing well, and how could they be?" said Shannon Sohn, a
helicopter reporter for WABC-TV who flew with Smith for the last 10
years. "But they're going to pull through it because they were an
amazingly strong family ... He raised boys who are going to get
their mother through this."
Smith's friends said he'd gotten his start in aviation during
Vietnam, eventually flying some of the most difficult helicopters
to navigate. He completed two tours and continued his love for
flying, going on to become a pilot and director of safety for
Helicopters Inc., a St. Louis-based company that provides news
helicopters.
"He was our guardian in that helicopter,"said Kenny Plotnik, vice
president and news director for WABC-TV. "Safety was his first,
middle and last name."
Though he wasn't responsible for taking photographs or reporting,
Sohn said, Smith quickly took on a flair for news gathering - eager
to be the first at the scene and get the best material, all the
while with an eye toward safety. It was Smith, Sohn recalled, who
flew her toward the Henry Hudson Parkway in Washington Heights when
a retaining wall collapsed onto the roadway in 2005, and when a
helicopter for Channel 4 crashed on a Flatbush rooftop in 2004 -
coverage of which won WABC-TV an Emmy.
Despite any stress, Smith remained cool under pressure.
John Del Giorno, whose son also sat next to Smith in the newscopter
for WABC-TV, remembered how on September 11, 2001, Smith had calmed
his son as they were up in the air when the first plane struck the
World Trade Center. Del Giorno, a World War II veteran, said: "He
treated me like I was a war hero. I should have been treating him
like a war hero."
Neighbors in West Islip recalled how proud he was of his two sons -
one a recent college graduate, the other a New York City police
officer. "It makes you think how fragile life really is," said
Diane Belliveau. "This is going to leave a big emptiness on the
street."
Maria Alvarez and staff writers Rocco Parascandola and John Valenti
contributed to this story.
He learned to fly in the military and served
two tours in Vietnam, friends said.
He won a local Emmy Award in 2005 for spot-news coverage of a
WNBC-TV helicopter crash in Brooklyn in May 2004.
Mr. Smith lived with his wife of nearly 30 years, Donna, and their
sons, Cale, 24, and Cory, 26, an officer
with the New York Police Department, in a ranch-style house in West
Islip, on Long Island, on a quiet street
a few blocks from the Great South Bay.
John J. DelGiorno, 37, a reporter for WABC and
Metro Traffic, a traffic news provider,
who was a partner with Mr. Smith in the Newscopter Seven,
recalled the time when they shot aerial images right after the
September 11 attack.
�I was scared out of my mind,� he said. �The second airplane actually flew right past
us. He looked at me and said,
�We�ll be O.K.� He was stern and straightforward and got us through
that experience.
�He was calm under pressure. He had seen a lot, both in Vietnam and
in life in general.�
Paul Smith, 60, was employed by Helicopters Inc. for WABC.
http://www.helicoptersinc.com/
Helicopters Inc
3136 Domar St
Memphis TN 38118-3527
United States
9013634899
Helicopters Inc is a Part 91 commercial
helicopter service. We are based at the General Dewitt Spain
airport in Memphis (M01) but operate regionally and provide a
variety of flight services.
Please bookmark our site and visit us again. This site contains
information about what we do as well as password-protected areas
from which our clients can retrieve digital, GPS-encoded images,
flight reports, and other information which we produce using our
in-house technology.
Please contact us directly if you are interested in the services we
offer, from pipeline/powerline inspection and imaging, aerial
photography and video, and helitours.
We will be selling rides at fairs, barbeque contests, and airshows
on many weekends through September. If you've ridden with us at one
of these events, we are pleased that you looked up our web page. If
you'd like to ride with us again, please call us to arrange for a
longer and more individual helitour.
Digital Imaging
With a specially-modified Kodak DCS-420
high-resolution digital camera connected to a GPS
receiver,
we can photograph sites from the air
Helicopters Inc. fulfills serveral long-term pipeline survey contracts, as well as doing on-call inspection work.
Helicopters Inc also provides services to a variety of photographers and videographers as well as capturing the images with our gyro stabilized cameras. Please contact us directly for rates and references.
Wayne Breeden, CFI
wbreeden@helicoptersinc.com
Buddy Wilson
bwilson@helicoptersinc.com
Aerial Photographers , Aircraft Charter Rental And Leasing , Charter Helicopter Rental And Leasing
Breeden Wayne M
3136 Domar St
Memphis, TN, 38118
(901) 363-4899
http://local.meridianstar.com/Breeden+Wayne+M.262134.8933114.home.html
http://www.photostudiodir.com/detailed/28520.html
Wilson, Glen K. II "Buddy"
Website: www.helicopters.com
Member, Aviation Unit1
Memphis Police Department
Congratulations
to Mr. Benjamin Hewlett of Victor Airways, LLC,
on the purchase of his new Enstrom 480B Helicopter. Pictured is Mr.
and Mrs. Jerry Mullins, President of Enstrom Corporation, Mr.
Benjamin Hewlett, Kevin McCutcheon, President of Flight Solutions,
Lee Barefield, Office Manager and Wayne
Breeden, Enstrom Check Airman.
patsy iacono
Catholic New York - Lead Story - April 29, 1999
The day after the Littleton, Colo., high school massacre, Cardinal O'Connor told a congregation of high school seniors that there is so much violence today because "we have a world filled with so much hate."
10/09/2007
Musharraf OK as
4 die in crash of aides' copter
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A helicopter carrying aides to President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf crashed Monday as the Pakistani leader flew to
Kashmir. Though blamed on a technical fault, the accident revived
concern for Musharraf's safety as his war with Islamic militants
intensifies.
The dead included a cameraman for state television, a military
intelligence brigadier and two soldiers, officials said. The
president's spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, who suffered a burn to his
right hand, was among five passengers injured.
