Flight tracker information appears to show the helicopter flying into the hill at 150 mph. Looks like the pilot tried to gain altitude right at the end. I do not know how accurate the flight tracker info is. If you listen to the air traffic control tape you can hear the controller asking the pilot what he is doing. He asks what are you intentions? Your altitude is too low for that terrain. The air traffic controller told the pilot to follow the freeway but for some reason the pilot took a left turn into the hill. We'll get a report from the Feds in a few months. Be interested to see what they find.
Here's a post from a recently retired Army helo pilot. He's a member of another board I frequent.
"CFIT
Controlled flight into terrain.
Number one killer of Army Aviators.
Weather - Number one cause
I’ve flown special visual flight rules (SVFR) more times than I can count, and every single time was [censored] terrifying.
Weather at the time of the crash.
1100ft ceilings Overcast, 2.5 miles of visibility with haze. 30.19 altimeter setting on the first call heard on the radio.
One of the radio calls, the controller stated that an aircraft had a missed approach while flying under instruments, and was unable to see the runway. Which means an aircraft, flying instruments, descended to 100-400ft above the runway depending on the type of approach, could not see the runway, the runway lights, or even the airport, aborted the approach, and was setting up to try again.
When they transitioned to the next airports airspace the tower called out Altimeter is 30.16
Ambient pressure dropped.
Weather gets worse when the pressure drops, ceilings come down, visibility gets worse.
One of the last calls from the helicopter, they were requesting flight following.
The controller asked them to ident. Meaning push the identification button on the transponder so the radar system can pick them up.
They were so low, the radar could not see them.
No more transmissions were received.
To those of you who don’t understand what it’s like to fly in the clouds.
Imagine spiritedly driving an awesome canyon road around 80mph, and suddenly your windshield completely fogs over, all you see is grey, and the defroster is totally ineffective, only you can’t slow down, and the only thing to guide you is the GPS screen on your dashboard.
Even then, this doesn’t capture the full situation, because now your car can hover above the road, be below the road, drift to either side of the road, and can begin to roll to the left or the right or the nose can pitch up or down. If it rolls too far, or pitches up or down too far, it begins falling uncontrollably.
Your body can tell you the car is rolling when it’s not, and can even get so bad that if feels like you are spinning in your seat, and doing somersaults in any direction. You hands will instinctively attempt to correct and get the spinning in your head to stop. The only way to overcome it, is to look at and trust your instruments aren’t lying to you, suppress all the sensations your body is telling you, and fly the instruments like a video game. It’s incredibly difficult.
On top of that. Helicopters don’t want to fly straight and level. They are constantly attempting to roll one direction or another, pitch up, and pitch down. It requires 100% of your full attention, and constant control inputs to keep the helicopter going the direction you want it to go.
Additionally if you admit that you can’t see, and declare an emergency to have the people on the ground to help you get safely back where you’re going, you can lose your job that you have worked your entire life to earn for putting yourself in that position in the first place.
I had a hard self imposed limit of 1000ft ceilings and 3 statute miles of visibility before I would take off for a non-essential flight.
If people were getting shot at, and weather was going to improve for the duration of the flight, I would push down to 500ft and 1.5SM, with every intent of being ready to declare an emergency, pull in max torque at max rate of climb, transition to the instruments, and shoot an approach back to the airfield.
You don’t push weather. That’s how you die."
