For the second time, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the newsroom on a weekend.
Generally, there are much fewer people working and the “newsroom buzz” is a few decibels lower than normal. There are the same usual suspects scattered throughout the room – the producers, the writers, the production team members, the editors, the anchors and reporters – just fewer than on weekdays.
Because there are less bodies, this affords me the opportunity to lend an extra helping hand where possible. During this past weekend, this meant assisting the weekend producer with some breaking news from Powell Lake where a float plane flipped forward in the water and everyone onboard survived.
This was of particular interest since similar stories that have been reported lately involved the passengers dying.
So the news broke right before the Saturday evening show and I was able to contact a witness from a nearby restaurant who then emailed a photo to my phone. We were able to get it on air in time.
When I arrived bright and early at the newsroom on Sunday morning, the weekend producer asked me to help her figure out a travel plan for a reporter and shooter to get to Powell Lake ASAP.
As you can see, it’s not the closest destination to travel to, shoot the story and then get back to the newsroom in time to edit for the 6pm show. After looking at ferry schedules, it was decided that a charter float plane would be the best option.
After a few quick calls, we were able to secure a float plane for the day to transport the reporter and cameraperson (…is it politically incorrect these days to say “cameraman”?) to Lake Powell and back.
Throughout the day, we kept tabs on the two adventurers and their story updates. While they were traveling, I worked on finding more witnesses that may have seen the incident.
When they made it back to the newsroom (in time and after plenty of hustle), we found out that they actually interviewed some members of a nearby softball team who helped fish the shocked passengers and pilot out of the water.
So without further ado, here is the story ladies and gentlemen.
-britney
Let’s keep in touch on Twitter: @BritDarma
Tags: bc, float, global, lake, news, newsroom, plane, powell, weekend
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