He was headed for Thousand Oaks (his “Mamba Sports Academy” is there). The loops over Glandale were a hold by by air traffic controllers.
ATC audio here (audio starts at 30 seconds in):
Thank you. Oh i c. I miss interpreted what the blue dots represented. They where markers for whomever was using flight24
Interesting audio. The last thing tower told him was that he was too low.
Sounds to me like lack of terrain awareness in VFR conditions.
From the article:
Eyewitness Jerry Kocharian, 62, said he was standing outside the Church in the Canyon drinking coffee when he heard a helicopter that was flying unusually low and seeming to struggle.Engine trouble?“It wasn’t sounding right,” he said, “and it was real low. I saw it falling and spluttering. But it was hard to make out as it was so foggy.”
The craft vanished into the sheet of fog, and then Kocharian heard the boom and saw a fireball.