Tower lost all contact but helicopter flew on for a couple minutes without sos or any radio contact.

Several replies talk about it...

....later reports were that the copter had crashed and then exploded or caught fire after.

Something damn sure happened - suddenly no radio contact.

I believe the TRACON radio is blocked by the hills when below them and the helicopter was at 013, or 1300 ft. The hills are 2000 feet tall. Sadly that last minute jump to 020 might have been the pilot trying to climb.

no audio from helicopter to tower.

possibly, someone else tried to fly it.

If the overcast was 1100 ft and they were at 1300 feet, they couldn't see the ground. My gut feel is controlled flight into terrain based on where they crashed.

what made me think otherwise was that by radar and tower
they turned off course suddenly, the tower was trying to find out why
but they never responded.

The pilot said he wanted to follow the 101, by which I assume the Ventura Freeway (US rt 101) is intended. He crashed nearby. That highway leads to Thousand Oaks, which was the intended destination.

SOCAL is the Traffic Control for that area, and the frequency 134.2 handles the area north of LA. The pilot was no longer talking to Van Nuys tower because he had been handed off to SOCAL. If they had been closer to 2500 feet in altitude, I think nothing would have happened.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

nt

A previous crash in this model aircraft was due to low visibility and pilot error. It is flown by 2 pilots rather than one.