Thai news crew escapes after their helicopter crashes

Bangkok: A Thai news crew escaped safely on Saturday after their helicopter hit overhead electrical wires, made a hard landing on a pier and then sank into the Chao Phraya River outside Bangkok, news reports said.

The helicopter, chartered by the state-run National Broadcasting Services of Thailand to cover flooding, was hovering near a riverside Buddhist temple on Ko Kret, an island north of the capital, when its tail got tangled in the wires.

The pilot brought the helicopter down on a nearby pier, allowing all four people on board - the pilot, co-pilot, a cameraman and a female reporter - to escape before the pier collapsed from the chopper's weight and sank into the river, according to the Matichon and Thai Rath newspapers' websites.