A news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth last month — killing the pilot, an onboard journalist and a bystander on the ground — was flying low and had slowed down to an airspeed of about 6 knots in the minute before it went down, according to a preliminary federal report.
The National Transportation Safety Board report, released Tuesday, said the Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter maneuvered above a collision involving an SUV and an L.A. Metro bus to gather footage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 for about 1 hour and 24 minutes before it crashed.
Just before it went down, the craft was about 800 feet off the ground and had slowed to nearly 7 mph, conditions that may have prevented the pilot from executing a safety maneuver known as autorotation, experts say…