History of Flight On January 26th, at about 0829, the pilot departed the Island Express hangar at LGB with N72EX, landed at John Wayne-Orange County Airport (SNA), and sent out a group cell phone text message about 0839 stating “Heli at OC standing by.” He met with owner of OC Helicopters LLC, a Part 135 operator, who brokered the flight to Island Express and was acting as a transportation coordinator for the movement of the passengers. The two discussed the upcoming charter flight and the weather. The pilot told the coordinator he was going to fly north and east of clouds depicted on the ForeFlight app on his cell phone. The coordinator understood the pilot to mean that his flight route would be via Dodger stadium, around Burbank to take the 118 freeway around the weather. When the eight passengers arrived, the pilot returned to the helicopter and the coordinator escorted the passengers to the helicopter. The helicopter departed SNA at 0906 enroute to the Camarillo airport (CMA). At the same time the coordinator sent out a group cell phone text stating “Wheels up.” According to the Island Express vice-president, about 0949 the operations manager of OC Helicopters contacted her to ask for the pilot’s location on Spidertracks. The vice-president noted the Spidertracks had stopped tracking at 0945. She called the company general manager/flight follower, located at the Queensway office in Long Beach, and asked him to try and contact the pilot via the VHF radio. The general manager attempted to but could not establish radio contact with the pilot. At about 0955, the general manager attempted to call CMA for information, but could not get an answer. He had also attempted to call the director of operations but could not get an answer. At 0958, the vice-president directed the general manager to open the Emergency Response Plan and the two reviewed the document. At 1002, the owner of OC Helicopters sent out a group cell phone text, asking if the pilot was OK. Two minutes later he sent out another text containing the latest ATIS information at CMA. About 1005, the vice-president directed the general manager to dispatch a company AS-350 helicopter to the site of the last Spidertracks position of N72EX. At 1005, the vice-president was able to establish cell phone contact with the director of operations. He volunteered to drive to the last Spidertracks contact point, near the city of Calabasas, California. About 1022, the AS-350 helicopter departed the Queensway heliport enroute to Calabasas. About 1027, the vice-president contacted the general manager to have the AS-350 return, due to confirmation of a crash near N72EX’s last known location. 1.1 Events prior to the accident On January, 2020, the accident pilot conducted a charter flight for the same eight passengers. This flight was the first of two charter flights scheduled by the same customer. Both flights had originally been planned for a 0945-takeoff time and had the same destination of CMA with a return flight to occur after 1400. On January 25th, the pilot departed SNA at 1000, flew direct towards the Los Alamitos airport, then to the 91/605 Interchange VFR Checkpoint, passed south of the City Hall VFR Checkpoint, then turned left to cross north of Sepulveda Pass. The pilot then proceeded west following the 101 freeway to CMA. The pilot returned the passengers to SNA, later in the day. According to the customer’s personal assistant, that evening the departure time for the upcoming morning flight changed to 0900, due to a request from the customer. The pilot operated N72EX for the flights conducted on January. Spidertracks, according to the website, is a flight tracking application allowing the user to keep track of a fleet via phone, tablet or laptop. Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) is the continuous broadcast of recorded non-control information in selected high activity terminal areas. Its purpose is to improve controller effectiveness and to relieve frequency congestion by automating the repetitive transmission of essential but routine information. The information is continuously broadcast over a discrete VHF radio frequency or the voice portion of a local NAVAID.