While the bloody confrontation continued in the streets of Bucharest, Ceausescu climbed to the roof of the Central Committee building and boarded a helicopter. His escape became the landmark of the deposition of communism in Romania. With the dictator's whereabouts unknown, dozens of protesters seized the government and state television headquarters and announced the regime's downfall. While anti-Ceausescu militants divided between those urging calm and those continuing clashes with parts of the remaining Securitate, the helicopter carrying the dictator traveled towards the Romanian mountains. However, halfway there, the helicopter ran out of fuel and descended with the pilots fleeing amid the wave of conflict, with several versions of what happened at that moment.

"Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu went out on the streets and asked for a ride. A man stopped, and they were all caught by the newly formed Revolutionary Guard," Lavina Stan recounts.

Arrested, Ceausescu was taken to a newly formed military tribunal. He and Elena were accused of crimes such as genocide and economic destruction. According to reports at the time, lawyers hastily summoned by the revolutionaries tried to convince them to claim mental instability to escape the death penalty, but the deposed couple refused, saying that other governments would help them because it was a coup.