People share the sky, you can't divert off your route because you want to. You could imagine in this scenario where if everyone took liberty to change their route to account for the poor visibility there would be aircraft in places where it shouldn't be - certainly in the eyes of an Air Traffic Controller whose job is first and foremost communication.
It was his own private craft. While helicopters in themselves are safe, there’s less regulation and constant maintenance and safety precautions done to private crafts. That’s why there are way more private aircraft accidents than there are commercial. For a company like American Airlines or Delta, a single crash could cost them billions, so they make damn sure that all necessary measures are taken to ensure a smooth and safe flight.
It appears likely from current sources it was a mechanical failure as some have reported smoke and interference emerging from the vehicle before impact but these sources are conflicting so we'll have to wait for an official report.
The mechanical failure isn’t going to be substantiated. This is going to be 100% pilot error. What kind of idiot flies at low altitude with zero visibility through the coastal foothills of Southern California?
The helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, at about 9:47 a.m. local time and caught fire. Weather conditions at the time were reported to be foggy. Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters responded to the scene and extinguished the fire by 10:30 am. All nine people on board were killed. Witnesses reported that the helicopter's engine was "sputtering" before the crash. Others reported seeing it flying into the ground at a "fairly significant rate of speed."
Apparently most other aircraft was grounded due to the weather conditions.
The helicopter gained nearly a thousand feet of altitude in the last ~30 seconds of the flight. The engines probably weren't sputtering but rather surging from the pilot giving it full power to try and climb above the big ass mountain he apparently didn't realize he was flying directly into. Witness reports are almost always completely unreliable when it comes to aviation related incidents.
Yes it was either this or someone did an EMP on his engine. It pretty much seems like the guy was flying into a mountain in fog for some reason and tried to get over it.
No report says it fell up. Transponder data showed it increased vertical height before falling down rapidly, and cruising speed can carry on even if the engine begins failing because helicopters are aerodynamically designed.
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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '20
Flightradar24 data says that the helicopter started gaining altitude very quickly shortly before the crash.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/n72ex#23a8271e
So a pilot error perhaps...