A news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth as a pilot and reporter were covering a fatal traffic crash last month descended at about 38 knots — or nearly 44 mph — from 800 feet above ground level, according to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
The crash killed pilot George Marciniw, 70, reporter Eliana Moreno, 38, and a man on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29.
Marciniw and Moreno were working for Angel City Air, which contracts with NBC4 Los Angeles.
The report did not offer any new revelations or identify a cause of the crash.
Marciniw and Moreno took off from Whiteman Airport in the Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter about 5:25 p.m. on Sept. 15. The pilot maneuvered to above a collision in which a SUV plowed into a LA Metro bus at De Soto Avenue and Nordhoff Street, killing two bus passengers and injuring six people. It hovered above for an hour and 24 minutes before it went down.
During the last minute of the flight, the helicopter was about 800 feet above ground level and had decelerated to 6 knots — or about 7 mph.
Investigators noted a four-plus-minute recording taken by Moreno. The sounds of the helicopter were mostly consistent with normal operations.
The video was focused on the bus crash, then zoomed out as the helicopter started descending. Moreno at one point is heard asking, “You can’t pull up?” just before slamming into the ground in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue.
“During the last 29 seconds of the flight, the recording captured the helicopter noise as it changed frequency, along with intermittent and continuous horns, consistent with the helicopter’s main rotor high rpm, low rotor rpm and other aural advisories,” the report said.
As the helicopter began a “rapid descent” it also turned turned right, the report says.
The helicopter hit a metal storage container on the ground and landed partially on its right side, the report says. It then burst into flames.
The fuselage was “mostly reduced to ash and thermally damaged metal,” the report says.
The tail boom separated but stayed next to the fuselage and both rotors were attached at their respective mounting assemblies.
Mariciw and Moreno were covering the bus crash in which authorities say the SUV ran a red light and slammed into the side of the coach. Gage Weida, 31, and Daniel Castillo, 46, died at the scene.
The SUV driver, Bailee Lynn Rios, of Simi Valley, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Rios was under the influence of drugs, speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road at the time of the crash.