Learned to fly at Van Nuys back in the day .Even the usual haze was tricky enough most days. Was on a solo x country to Mojave with about 35 hours total experience.On the way back the visibility reduced very rapidly and ended up 'temporarily unsure of my position'.The controller was quick to transfer me to George Air Force Base (as a Brit this was mildly exciting). He asked me if i could see the road below? er nope.Around 2500 ft at the time. Ok Son maintain present heading we will climb you to 8000 ft, then he is meanwhile giving instructions to a couple of fast jets in the area. Vectored me above and around the terrain ,back towards Van Nuys.Luckily the visibility improved so landed eventually... Lesson learned.
This is a pretty well put together video by a pilot of the helicopter flight path overlayed on google maps.
The NTSB says the helicopter was 30 feet from clearing the mountain, an iPad with Foreflight was also found: https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/bryant-helicopter-ntsb-statement/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR1ypD5i-z1d6PtvoPpf51OQ6ms4674I5bPoTEcjLNjspgPY86pnOglkVSs
