Such a terrible day yesterday in my home market of Seattle. KOMO’s helicopter crashed upon takeoff from their rooftop helipad and along with it took the lives of photojournalist Bill Strothman and pilot Gary Pfitzner. The news business is a tight community, like it always has been from the earliest days of the newsreels, and many are understandably in shock.

Say a prayer for their souls and for the comfort of their families, colleagues and friends.

Its a sad irony that the first photojournalist to die on the job was from Seattle whose name is mostly forgotten now within the collective memories of his modern colleagues. And now the most recent is also from Seattle.

I hope yesterday’s addition to the tragic list of those who died in the pursuit of the story is the last and another name will never be added.