NBC4 helicopter was flying low and slow before crash, NTSB says

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred A news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth last month — killing the pilot, an onboard journalist and a bystander on the ground — was flying low and had slowed down to an airspeed of about 6 knots in the minute before it went down, according to a preliminary federal report.The National Transportation Safety Board report, released Tuesday, said the Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter maneuvered above a collision involving an SUV and an L.A.

Metro bus to gather footage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 for about 1 hour and 24 minutes before it crashed.Just before it went down, the craft was about 800 feet off the ground and had slowed to nearly 7 mph, conditions that may have prevented the pilot from executing a safety maneuver known as autorotation, experts say.When a helicopter’s rotors stop rotating, a pilot can use autorotation to try to gain enough momentum and upward flow on the rotor blades to increase their rotation, which helps control the aircraft as it descends, according to Jack Cress, a former U.S.

Marine Corps helicopter pilot and a helicopter accident investigation instructor at USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program.California The NBC4 helicopter crash has prompted soul-searching in the world of TV news helicopter pilots and focused attention on safety issues.“I am not convinced that the guy was not in a height velocity problem, and I think that the fact that his ground speed was a mere 6 knots suggested he did not have that part of the kinetic energy that he needed to make a successful autorotation from where he was,” Cress said.

NBC4 reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed in the crash along with 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the chopper went down.The NTSB report did not outline what specifically caused the helicopter to crash.But the rep...