The National Transportation Safety Board said live footage recorded from the news helicopter that went down in Los Angeles County, killing three people, will be key evidence in investigating the crash.
The NBC 4/Telemundo 52 Los Angeles helicopter was flying above Chatsworth on the evening of Sept. 15 to report on an earlier deadly bus crash. Just before 7 p.m. local time, the chopper fell to the ground, killing the two people on board and one person on the ground.
The victims were identified as Eliana Moreno, a reporter; George Marciniw, the helicopter pilot; and Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29.
The video and audio captured from the chopper in its final moments is "probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far," said NTSB Investigator-in-Charge
Fabian Salazar.
In the video, an aerial view of the earlier crash between a Metro bus and an SUV, an alarm can be heard before Moreno's voice asking if Marciniw can pull up. The camera then appears to shake up and down before the footage ends abruptly.
That footage will be analyzed by investigators, among other footage from nearby security cameras and video submitted by the public, Salazar said.
"In that recording, we are clearly hearing sounds that are consistent with the engine changing its speed. And we're also hearing tones that are being generated that are likely advisories to the pilot," Salazar said at a Sept. 16 news conference.
The helicopter was "substantially damaged" in the crash, Salazar said. Authorities previously said it went down near commercial buildings and caught fire, also spreading to other vehicles on the ground.
Salazar said he is not aware of a data recorder from the helicopter, but investigators were still searching through wreckage and coordinating with the aircraft's owner. The chopper was operated by Angel City Air.
A preliminary report on the crash by NTSB is expected 30 days afterward, but a final report identifying a probable cause could take up to 18 months to complete, Salazar said.
"We are combing the wreckage to the best of our ability to gather as much factual data as we can even though the wreckage did suffer through a post-accident fire," he said.
Salazar said businesses nearby are known to have security cameras that will also be crucial in the investigation. Dash camera from a witness' vehicle reported by KTLA 5 caught the helicopter losing altitude.
"Something didn't look right," witness Zareh Sevanesian told NBC 4. "And, I told my wife, that helicopter's not flying right. It was swaying and all of the sudden it started losing altitude. It just kept getting lower and lower and lower and lower."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harrowing video showed news chopper's final seconds, NTSB confirms
