Aerial photos of snowpocalypse possible thanks to Birmingham helicopter pilot

Helicopter pilot Brian K. Coshatt. (Jennifer Crandall | By The Birmingham News
Follow on Twitter
on January 30, 2014 at 7:23 PM, updated January 31, 2014 at 11:52 AM

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - If it weren't for Birmingham-based helicopter pilot Brian K. Coshatt, you never would have seen Birmingham's snowpocalypse the way you did.

Maybe you would have seen this:

Winter Storm(Frank Couch/

Or this:

Snow angels help others during winter storm in Central AlabamaPhoto courtesy of James Craiger)

But you wouldn't have seen aerial coverage of the winter storm that paralyzed the area.

You can thank Coshatt for giving you perspective. Over the past three days, Coshatt piloted the helicopter that and some local television stations used to get journalists up in the air, above all the frozen gridlock, to capture a bird's eye view of Birmingham's highways and byways.

Coshatt, a native of Birmingham, has been an airplane pilot for 38 years and flying helicopters since 1993. He is the owner of a new charter helicopter company,

"Flying helicopters is the most fun flying I've done out of all the flying experience I've had. Really it's because I feel connected to the earth, you can see what's going on."

Over the past couple of days Coshatt has seen "cars sitting in rivers upside down in ditches, emergency vehicles trying to help folks that couldn't get through. People just walking outside their cars walking to the nearest exit in 10 degree weather. You really see how helpless people are without an automobile."

Coshatt was on a training run Tuesday when he noticed the snowfall getting heavier. Visibility was going down. "That's when it occurred to me this is probably going to be a pretty bad storm." Coshatt returned the helicopter to its hanger and discovered about 20 voicemails had been left on his phone.

"There was no lack of desperate people. I got called from area codes out of town. Florida, Illinois, Louisiana. I had one guy that wanted me to take him to Atlanta. These were all people that were in Birmingham for business and they wanted to get out quick. What I heard a lot of was 'I don't care what it costs I just want you to get me out of here before it freezes over.' Then I started getting [called from] people on 280 that were stuck in traffic," he said. 

 By that time it was starting to get dark.

"I wish there was more that we could have done to help folks that were stranded but there are certain rules that we just can't break. We're not allowed to land on public roads without special permission. We are allowed to operate on private property but there was no place for me to sit down on 280 to pick people up. I think a lot of people expected me to land in the median on the highway and get'em, you know? At some point I stopped answering the phone because I knew I couldn't help them...a few people kinda got rude with me because when I explained I couldn't help they would get angry."

"You gotta understand people were desperate," Coshatt said.