Serendipitous News Coverage

Back from coverage of the tragic death of Sean Taylor. And back from (what I believe to be) a well earned vacation. (Also in S. Fla.)

What relevance does the above have to do with our blog title?

First, we were assisted in our Sean Taylor homicide coverage in Miami by CBS owned station WFOR. The staff, from the stations' News Director to all the editorial and technical people could not have been of greater help. (Ernest Lester, THANK YOU)

I am always happy to return a favor.

Returning by car from Key West, Fla. (remember I mentioned a well earned vacation) I encountered a big traffic jam in the Mid Key town of Marathon.

Monroe County Sheriff deputies were racing to a scene. Traffic was at a standstill. Quickly the scene unfolded. A Sheriff's car was smashed to pieces; crashed into the side of a bank building. (see pictures).

Collision reconstruction team on the scene.

I quickly turned on my public safety scanner and learned of the death of a veteran Monroe County Deputy in the crash. She was reportedly persuing a car when the deputy lost control of the cruiser and crashed into the bank.

I called WFOR's news desk in Miami with the information.

Then headed on toward the Miami airport. Giving the events of the day little additional thought.

What happened next is the real story.

The WFOR helicopter was dispatched for Marathon. The site of the crash was directly across US 1 from the airport. The helicopter arrived, shot video for the WFOR noon news.

While circling the crash site. The helicopter pilot and photographer were asked by Marathon Tower to look for a small Piper plane that had just disappeared from radar.

The WFOR crew found the plane with two survivors clinging to the wreckage for dear life.

They lowered to the water. They threw life preservers and flotation devices to the distressed pilot and his passenger. They saved 2 lives. In a sense because of my call to their desk 2 hours earlier.

Just an interesting coincidence.

Take a look at the WFOR, Miami story:http://cbs4.com/local/plane.crash.off.2.610241.html