Retired pilot who flew for LA news stations says Chatsworth helicopter appeared too low to recover

LOS ANGELES - A retired news helicopter pilot who flew for nearly every television station in Los Angeles is offering his perspective on Tuesday's deadly helicopter crash in Chatsworth. 

Kurt Deetz reviewed video of the helicopter's final live transmission and shared his read on what may have gone wrong in the moments before the crash.

What we know:

The reporter onboard the helicopter asks the pilot, "You can't pull up?" moments before the helicopter shakes and goes dark on the live transmission. Reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed aboard the helicopter. A pedestrian on the ground was also killed.  

In Deetz's opinion, it looks like the pilot lost engine power and immediately went into autorotation. He says when a helicopter loses engine power, which is rare, the right move is to put it into autorotation, and he believes that's exactly what the pilot did. But Deetz says something appeared to go wrong at the end of the autorotation.

When asked how much time the pilot had from that point, Deetz said "seconds." He says it was seconds because the helicopter appeared to be flying too low to recover, and too low to give the pilot a choice in where to land. 

RELATED: 

• Audio evidence key as NTSB probes fatal Chatsworth news helicopter crash
• Chatsworth helicopter crash: 3 killed, including NBCLA pilot and aerial reporter

What they're saying:

In Deetz’s opinion, helicopters covering breaking news should always stay high. The FAA currently only allows choppers to fly as low as 1,000 feet in urban areas and Deetz says there’s no need to go any lower than that since today's cameras are so powerful with their zoom.

What's next:

The NTSB has not released the cause of the crash. Investigators say they'll be reviewing that same final transmission, along with the wreckage, as part of their investigation, a process that could take months.