Helicopter mechanic remembers pilot who died in helicopter crash

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KESQ) – "He's a really great person, really friendly, really appreciable."

That's how Pablo Perez, a helicopter mechanic, remembered George Marciniw. Marciniw was the pilot flying NewsChopper4 when it crashed on Tuesday. Marciniw, reporter Eliana Romero, and a pedestrian on the ground, Edy Guitierrez Mejia, were killed in the crash.

Perez and Marciniw had a close working relationship that began a couple of years ago, when Marciniw approached Perez about working on some of the other helicopters he owned.

Perez recounted some of the meals shared after late nights working on helicopters and the interactions they shared.

"About two months ago, he was coming in from Arizona flying in a newly-purchased helicopter, and it lands, and it was like 118 [degrees]," Perez remembered. "He stopped by Blythe and he called me, [and] goes, ‘Pablo, I can’t get my helicopter started!' I go, 'Does it have a lithium battery?' He goes, 'Yeah, it does. It's a new helicopter. New battery.' I say, 'That's the problem.'"

With Perez's guidance, Marciniw put an ice pack on the battery and let it cool off. Within an hour, the engine started, and he was back in the air.

Those phone calls were common between the two. On Tuesday, just hours before the crash, Perez called Marciniw to ask about one of his helicopters he had been working on the past month.

"On Tuesday, about noon, I called him like, 'Hey, George, you know, I, I need you to choose what type of parts you want to buy, you know – new or repaired cylinders...,'" Perez recounted. "That's the last time I talked to him, like seven hours before the crash."

"But he's a really good guy. He'll give you the shirt off his back if it, if it came down to it. A high time pilot, real experienced," Perez explained. He said he was always looking to give back to the community and taught dozens of other pilots how to fly through his flight school. He also flew by the book and never cut corners.

The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) is continuing its investigation into the crash.

Perez said the circumstances leading up to it could provide some clues; flying low due to a nearby airport and with virtually no airspeed, he called that set of factors dangerous.

"I think there were near Van Nuys Airport. So I think the helicopters have to stay below 500ft because of the airport traffic, you know, and, and at 500 feet, you know, you're hovering out of ground effect," Perez said. "For one thing, there's zero airspeed. And in the helicopter industry, most pilots, they’ll know it's a dead man’s curve. You know, you got no airspeed, you're more vulnerable."

Flying so low to the ground with so little airspeed, Perez said there is only a small window of time to try to maneuver the helicopter.

"He had about maybe six or ten seconds from 500ft to land a helicopter, try to find a place to land," he explained.

"I'm not going to speculate and let the investigator decide what exactly happened, but there's definitely it seems like an engine did fail or something happened to the engine because they lost power."

Perez acknowledged that the investigations will take several months. Between the federal agencies working on finding out what happened to the manufacturers of the helicopter and the engine (Airbus and Turbomeca, respectively), he said there was a lot to uncover.

In the aftermath, though, he hoped his friend could be remembered for who he was.

"He was always... he was a giver. You know, he was a giver. Anything you wanted, you know. He always, 'Hey, you need something, Pablo? Let me know.'"

"He's going to be missed, you know."