NBC4 NewsChopper4 Crash: Three Lives Lost and an Investigation Still Open
News & Trending / Los Angeles
The aircraft was covering an earlier bus collision when it went down in Chatsworth. Three people died in the helicopter crash; investigators have not established its cause.
The featured image is an original editorial illustration. It does not show the aircraft, victims or crash scene.
A news helicopter providing aerial coverage for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 crashed in Chatsworth on Tuesday, September 15, killing its pilot, an aerial journalist and a man on the ground. The crew was reporting on a separate, fatal collision between an SUV and a Metro bus nearby. Federal investigators are examining video, wreckage and flight records to determine why the helicopter went down; no official cause has been announced.
Three people died in the helicopter crash. Los Angeles firefighters reported one additional person taken to a hospital, with the condition unknown in their incident update. The earlier bus collision killed two people. These were separate incidents, connected because the helicopter crew was covering the bus story.
The people behind the breaking-news flight
NBC Los Angeles identified the crew members as pilot George Marciniw and aerial journalist Eliana Moreno. The station said NewsChopper4 was owned and operated by Angel City Air and supplied coverage to NBC4 and Telemundo 52. Moreno had worked with the helicopter team since 2010, according to the station. The third person killed was Edy Fernando Gutiérrez Mejia, 29, who was on the ground. NBC Los Angeles reported that he was visiting from Cuilapa, Guatemala.
The account matters because a phrase such as “NBC helicopter crash” can obscure who was aboard and who was below. Three families lost someone in the aircraft accident. The two people killed in the bus collision were victims of a different event that occurred earlier that afternoon.
How the two incidents unfolded
The Metro bus and SUV collided at about 5 p.m. near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue. The helicopter later hovered over the area to cover that scene. At 6:57 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department logged an aircraft crash in Chatsworth. Responders found the helicopter down near commercial buildings, with fire threatening parked vehicles.
In its incident update, the fire department said 56 firefighters responded and extinguished the blaze. Four automobiles and two storage containers were damaged. Firefighters assessed four people: three were pronounced dead at the scene and one was transported to a hospital. The department said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration would handle the aviation investigation.
What investigators have—and what remains unknown
New security-camera footage obtained by NBC Los Angeles shows part of the helicopter’s final descent. The station reported that NTSB investigators also intend to examine the live broadcast recording, the wreckage, maintenance records, weather, pilot training and witness accounts. Investigators removed wreckage from the site for further examination.
Video can help establish the aircraft’s movements and timing, but it does not by itself prove whether a mechanical failure, operational issue or another factor caused the crash. Comments from outside aviation analysts are hypotheses, not NTSB findings. A preliminary report may provide an early factual account; a final probable-cause determination can take substantially longer.
A community dealing with two losses
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 issued a statement mourning those killed. The crash also left a community already responding to the deadly bus collision facing another emergency. The two events should be reported together for context without implying that the bus crash caused the helicopter to fall.
As of September 18, the central unanswered question is why NewsChopper4 lost altitude. The most reliable next milestone is an official update from the NTSB, supported by its review of evidence rather than a conclusion drawn from a short video clip.
