Dramatic recording could help answer why NBC4 helicopter crashed
Dramatic recording could help answer why NBC4 helicopter crashed
It was a night of devastation in Chatsworth that began with a deadly Metro bus collision and ended with the fiery crash of an NBC4 helicopter covering the news that left two journalists and, on the ground, a bystander dead.
Tuesday’s scene was a mixture of confusion and chaos, with first responders fanned out across two catastrophes and television news teams desperately trying to find out whether their journalists were safe. The crashes claimed the lives of five people and left others with various degrees of injury.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were trying Wednesday to determine exactly what caused the news helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 B2, to go down.
NTSB Investigator Fabian Salazar said officials are searching through the wreckage, combing through maintenance logbooks, security footage, weather reports and witness interviews, and reviewing the pilot’s training to figure out what went wrong.
But the most critical information so far has been audio captured from the helicopter during a live broadcast of reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw’s final moments before it crashed.
The footage shows an aerial view of the bus crash with the whirl of the helicopter in the background. Suddenly, the sound of the engine’s motor winds down and a horn blares, possibly warning the pilot that the main rotor speed had dropped too low or the helicopter had lost hydraulics. Moreno responds to the noise with a quiet “uh oh.”
The angle of the camera begins to descend and Moreno is heard asking “You can’t pull up?” before the video cuts out. Moreno, Marciniw and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the chopper went down around 7 p.m., were killed.
“That video is probably the most important piece of evidence we have recovered so far,” Salazar said.
Read more: They were the ‘eyes and ears in the sky.’ NBC4 helicopter crew were SoCal news veterans
Aviation experts told The Times the crash might be the result of a mechanical failure with the 22-year-old aircraft, a common helicopter for news and law enforcement organizations because of its general reliability.
Zoey Tur, a veteran news helicopter pilot who operated the type of helicopter the NBC4 crew was flying, said the sound the microphone picked up was of the engine shutting down.
“First, the engine starts winding down, which in turn reduces power to the rotor blades. Then you hear the horn warning of low rotor RPM. You can even hear the blade slap slow down,” Tur said.
But, Tur pointed out, the fire that resulted when the copter crashed indicated there was still fuel onboard, so the engines likely shut down for another reason.
When a helicopter’s rotors stop rotating, there’s a safety maneuver known as autorotation where the pilot can try to gain enough momentum and upward flow on the rotor blades to increase their rotation, which helps control the aircraft as it descends, said Jack Cress, a former helicopter pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps and a helicopter accident investigation instructor at USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program.
Cress compared the maneuver to a fixed-wing airplane gliding through the air with the force generated by its wings but, in this case, the helicopter would use the upward force on its rotors caused by descending, or moving forward, to make the rotors turn fast enough to keep the craft in relative control.
But Cress said the fact that the helicopter appeared to be hovering in the air, and at a low altitude, would make it difficult for the pilot to execute the maneuver.
“In this case, he’s in the worst part of the height-velocity curve,” Cress said, referring to a chart used by helicopter pilots that tracks height and air speed for safe flight conditions. “That is a dangerous place to be.”
Helicopter pilots are trained to stay away from those conditions, Cress said, because the lack of altitude and forward momentum give pilots little recourse if there is engine trouble. But for news helicopters and police choppers, hovering and maintaining low altitude is a common practice, he said.
Those conditions of hovering in the air, with little altitude and no momentum, are commonly referred to by helicopter pilots as a “dead man’s curve,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and FAA investigator who is also an instructor with USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program.
“That’s the worst place to be if you have a problem,” Guzzetti said.
The helicopter was owned by Tiny Bubbles Aviation Inc., a holding company with a business address listed at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, according to state and FAA records. The company is listed as the owner of at least six aircraft, including five helicopters.
Lawrence Welk III, who is listed in public records as an agent of Tiny Bubbles Aviation, is also president of Welk Aviation, a company that according to its website owns and operates news helicopters for KNBC and KTLA.
In a brief phone call on Wednesday, Welk confirmed to The Times that the company was working with investigators but declined to comment on the incident.
“I just got back from the accident scene,” Welk said.
Welk later issued a statement saying the Angel City Air Operation, which is listed as a division of Welk Aviation, was “devastated by the loss of two of our own and one bystander on the ground. … Right now, our focus is on supporting our team and the families affected during this incredibly difficult time.” Welk said the company was “cooperating fully” with the NTSB and FAA on their investigation and would not speculate on the cause of the crash. “We ask for privacy for the families and our team as we grieve together.”
Read more: Commentary: News helicopters are very L.A. It’s a dangerous job
The bus crash brought an army of first responders and news media to the area, including TV news choppers flying overhead. Residents gathered around the bus to figure out what was going on.
Then, everyone heard an explosion and saw a fireball rising a few blocks away. Many ran to that scene, where a fire was raging. Firefighters tried to battle the blaze while police pushed back the public and reporters. There were rumors immediately that a news chopper had crashed.
NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams told viewers the station had lost contact with its chopper crew. Around 9 p.m., she confirmed the NBC4 team had crashed.
The helicopter went down between two commercial buildings in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue, smashing into a pair of truck cargo containers.
The situation thrust the team at NBC4 into a journalist’s nightmare — a tragedy where reporters become part of the story.
“They were sacrificing their lives in service of their community,” NBC morning anchor Lynette Romero told viewers, with her co-anchors by her side. “They were determined and dedicated until the very end doing the job they loved so much. Our hearts are heavy this morning but we are here with you, we are here for you as we try to navigate these tragedies together.”
On Wednesday, authorities announced they had arrested Bailee Lynn Rios, who they said was driving the SUV that slammed into the bus, on suspicion of murder.
Rios, 36, is being held in lieu of $4 million bail, according to jail records.
Los Angeles police said Rios was driving a gray 2004 Ford Expedition around 5 p.m. Tuesday southbound in the northbound lanes on De Soto Avenue when she ran a red light at Nordhoff Street. The SUV narrowly avoided a car driving through the intersection before crashing into the side of the Metro Line 166 bus.
The violent crash ejected one passenger from the bus and partially ejected a second person, according to police. Two passengers, identified as 31-year-old Gage Weida and 46-year-old Daniel Castillo of Arleta, died at the scene.
One passenger, who suffered severe injuries, and five others with non-life-threatening injures were taken to hospitals.
The chain of events left residents shaken. “Anybody could be gone in a minute, you know?” Winnetka resident Michael Sanchez, a physical therapist, said.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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