Reply #58: Question: filming high speed objects

[BassettWilliams]

but first; yes, indeed. Bolo brings up a good point. If the helicopter was close to flight 175 it most certainly would have high-tailed it out of there the moment the pilot saw it.

Here in the NYC-NJ Metropolitan area the skies are inundated with aircraft; passenger planes of all sizes, freight, blimps, and helicopters are, without exaggeration in abundance: NYPD, Coast Guard, news, traffic, corporate, Medic, PANYNJ, taxi, private and other military for example. Whenever there is a police car chase, major traffic accident, fire or other newsworthy incident one can simply look up and see how the helicopters avoid passenger plane routes and also maintain distance from one another. News commentators even mention the no fly zones and distance requirements during their coverage and sometimes apologize for not being able to get in closer or show a better angle.

In post #18 I mentioned that I have seen NYPD helicopter camera footage of military aircraft flyovers at opening day ceremonies for the baseball and football seasons, memorial day, and for numerous other events. The footage is lousy. It's clear that those military planes in these ceremonial flyovers pass the stadiums and parade routes at much slower than normal operating speeds, but the footage is bad, usually just a few seconds then a blur, another few seconds and then another blur. It is obvious they loose track of these planes and have problems following them with the camera.

I have tried to videotape car races up in Watkins Glen, and other sporting events. It's difficult to keep a race car, which is traveling much slower than a jet aircraft, in my camera. I made every effort to do so but in all honesty my footage was mostly blurred. My question is: Would NYPD be able to film the airliner in question at the speeds it was reported to be traveling?