Visible crew/equipment: When Blue Thunder approaches the chicken shack, you can see an entire camera crew on the roof of the building across the street. (01:31:45)
Visible crew/equipment: As Blue Thunder performs its loop just before the bad guy's helicopter is destroyed, there is a shot of him looking around in his helicopter. In this shot you can see the camera helicopter reflected in the glass.
Visible crew/equipment: The helicopters are flying low above the streets chasing each other. Several forward looking shots show no to very little traffic, and one blatantly shows two cops directing traffic away from the set of the film.
Chosen answer: Murphy has been deemed a threat to the public at large by the authorities, having "snapped" and stolen an armed helicopter. Cochrane is using that determination as cover to finally kill Murphy, whom he's long despised. Killing Murphy on the ground would be harder to get away with. He would not be responsible for paying for the helicopter anymore than the Air Force or the other police helicopter crews would be had they sucessfully knocked Blue Thunder down.
johnrosa