Hard to understand why he simply did not request permission to climb above the fog,
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That was his last request, but he got disoriented most likely. He never made it above the clouds.
Before that he was below the clouds flying over hwy 101. I think the ceiling kept getting lower and he got trapped in the clouds.
Dumb question not knowing anything about flying helicopters. Why couldn’t he just stop and hover? Could he have stopped all horizontal and vertical movement? At least until he figured out what to do?
OK, I’m not familiar with flying helicopters etc but if they saw the fog getting worse and worse, why not just set it down somewhere and call an Uber? Might have been embarrassing and a little pricey for them but a lot safer. Or is that over-simplifying things?
Pilot disorientation would explain it. Yet are you really depending on your instruments to use your altimeter to go straight up? Imagine he was climbing on an angle, toward his destination and struck the mountain. Sad. Hopefully pilot trainees and other pilots will learn from this tragedy.