Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1541207
"We ran into a blizzard on the way back to Duluth and were flying in white-out conditions," Niekamp said. "That little plane was really bouncing around." News goes national The team made it back safely, sped to the station, and ran in to process the film for the 6 p.m. local news, but by that time NBC had sent a crew from Chicago and pretty much taken over the newsroom. "They had a correspondent (Rebecca Bell), a producer, a photographer, two film editors and all of their own film edit- ing equipment, so they set up adjacent to our editing stations and had first dibs on our film because NBC Nightly News aired before our local news," Niekamp said. "I had to develop the film, hoping we had decent footage—talk about pressure," Hansen said. "And man, the network crew grabbed that film out of my hand the minute it came out of the machine and rushed to edit their story." They made the network deadline with so little time to spare, the story had to be fed live. Then Niekamp and Hansen scrambled to finish the lead package for KBJR's 6 p.m. newscast. Later that night, Hansen recalls finding himself in the station entryway where Bell was waiting for her ride to a hotel. "She turned to me and said, 'What was it really like out there?' And I just said, 'You know, it was incredibly sad.' Then we both broke down and had a little hug," Hansen recalled. "It hit me hard, thinking about all of the people who lost their lives on the ship and their families." Over the next few days, television, radio and newspaper reporters in the Duluth-Superior market learned more about the wreck, the 29 men who died, and the family members left behind. Several Edmund Fitzgerald crew mem- bers lived in or had ties to the Twin Ports and surrounding area. The news deeply impacted the whole community. DULUTHPORT.COM | 7 We came in low and just as we approached, up popped a life raft and a bunch of timber and oil and debris. That was the first real confirmation that it had sunk." NBC SENT A NEWS TEAM FROM CHICAGO, INCLUDING CORRESPONDENT REBECCA BELL.