Falling overhead camera narrowly misses players at Insight Bowl

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At the Insight Bowl 12/30 in Tempe, Arizona, an overhead camera came crashing down to the field late in the fourth quarter, nearly taking out one of the players. The ESPN camera narrowly missed Iowa receiver Martin McNutt Jr.


While lining up for a play near the 20-yard line at the south end of Sun Devil Stadium, two Hawkeyes had to jump out of the way when the camera fell when the wire appeared to snap with 2:22 left. McNutt dodged the camera as it fell behind him, but became entangled in the guide wire after it thudded to the ground. He suffered only a minor scratch, but the game was delayed for about five minutes as crews dragged the camera off the field and made sure the wire was out of the way.

“First, I looked: `What is it that fell from the sky?'” McNutt said after Iowa’s 31-14 loss to No. 19 Oklahoma. “The next thing I know, the camera kind of scratched me a little bit. It was just pulling me and I knew I didn’t want to keep going with it,” he told The AP.

The camera at the Insight Bowl was supplied by SkyCam, a division of Winnercomm, Inc., a sports production and development company in Tulsa,. According to the company’s website, SkyCam is the only stabilized camera system in the world that can unobtrusively fly anywhere in a defined three-dimensional space. The camera is 36 inches high, weighs 25 pounds and travels up to 30 mph across the guide wire.

“We apologize for the accident,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said in a statement. “The independent company that operates SkyCam for us is in the midst of a thorough review to determine the cause of the problem. We will work with them and bowl officials to determine our future course of action. As always our primary concern will be the safety of fans and those on the field.”