A fatal bus crash had already drawn emergency crews and television helicopters to the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.

Then the journalists covering that tragedy became part of another one.

NewsChopper4, a helicopter providing aerial coverage for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, crashed shortly before 7 p.m. on September 15 while covering the aftermath of a collision involving an SUV and a Metro bus.

Aerial reporter and photojournalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed. A third person on the ground also died. At least one other person was hospitalized. NBC Los Angeles’ updated reporting lists one hospitalized person following the helicopter crash, while earlier reports indicated that two people had been transported.

The sequence was unusually visible because the helicopter had been transmitting live.

Video from NewsChopper4 captured an alarm sounding before the aircraft began losing altitude. The helicopter did not recover before the crash.

But what happened in those final seconds—and why—are different questions.

The cause of the crash remains unknown. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, and preliminary interpretations of the video should not be mistaken for an official finding.

What is already known is an extraordinary chain of events: a deadly traffic collision brought NewsChopper4 to Chatsworth; the helicopter then went down near the original scene; and NBC4 journalists covering one disaster gradually realized that the second involved members of their own news operation.

It began with a deadly bus crash

The first emergency began shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

An SUV collided with a Los Angeles Metro bus near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth. The SUV ended up partially inside the bus.

Updated information from Metro reported by NBC Los Angeles says three people were killed and six were hospitalized in that collision. Details about the hospitalized victims’ conditions were not immediately available.

Emergency crews converged on the area, and television news helicopters arrived overhead to provide aerial coverage.

NewsChopper4 was among them.

The aircraft provided aerial newsgathering for NBC4 and Telemundo 52. It was not operated directly by NBCUniversal. NBC4 says NewsChopper4 was operated by Angel City Air.

Moreno and Marciniw were aboard.

NBC4 said Moreno had worked with the Angel City Air helicopter team since 2010 after graduating from Chapman University with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. Marciniw was an experienced pilot and aviation instructor. The two began flying together in 2023.

Their assignment Tuesday was the kind of event for which television stations have relied on helicopters for decades: a major breaking-news scene where an aerial view can show traffic, emergency operations and the scale of an incident more effectively than cameras on the ground.

Then something went wrong.

What happened aboard NewsChopper4?

The helicopter was still providing coverage when the emergency began.

According to the Associated Press, video from the live broadcast captured an alarm sounding. The aircraft then began losing altitude and did not recover before the crash.

That footage will inevitably attract close attention.

But it does not establish a cause.

Former NTSB investigator and aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told AP that the available video appeared consistent with a possible loss of engine power and declining rotor speed. That is an expert interpretation of preliminary footage—not a finding from federal investigators.

The distinction is essential.

Helicopter accidents can involve mechanical failures, engine problems, flight-control issues, environmental conditions, pilot actions or combinations of factors. Investigators have not established which, if any, applied here.

The aircraft came down shortly before 7 p.m. in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, a short distance from the bus-crash scene.

It crashed between commercial buildings, and the impact sparked a fire. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the crash damaged four vehicles and two storage containers.

More than 70 firefighters responded to the scene, according to reporting on the emergency response. The main flames were extinguished that evening.

The helicopter itself was heavily damaged by the crash and fire.

Three people were killed

Moreno and Marciniw died aboard the helicopter.

A third person on the ground was also killed.

NBC4 identified Moreno and Marciniw as the two members of its aerial news team who died. Both were employees of Angel City Air.

At least one other person was hospitalized after the helicopter crash.

NBC Los Angeles’ updated report lists one hospitalized person, while earlier reporting indicated that two people had been transported. Because casualty information changed as authorities processed the scene, early reports differed on the exact number of nonfatal injuries.

The person killed on the ground had not been publicly identified in the reporting available to TrendPulse at the time of publication.

The condition of the wreckage may complicate parts of the investigation, but severe damage does not prevent investigators from reconstructing an accident.

Physical evidence, maintenance records, communications, video, witness accounts and any recoverable aircraft data can all contribute to establishing what happened.

NBC4 realized on air that its own helicopter was gone

The crash created another unusual dimension to the story.

NBC4 was already covering the Metro bus collision when smoke from the second crash became visible.

At first, the newsroom knew another helicopter had crashed.

Then NBC4 lost contact with its own crew.

The Los Angeles Times described anchors and reporters confronting the possibility on air as information arrived and the station tried to determine whether the helicopter involved was NewsChopper4.

Eventually, that fear was confirmed.

NBC4 had gone from covering the victims of one deadly accident to reporting that people associated with its own news operation had been killed in another.

The station briefly stepped away from its live coverage so employees could process what had happened. When coverage resumed, the story was no longer simply about the Metro collision and helicopter crash. It was also about the newsroom trying to report through the loss of its colleagues.

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 subsequently released a joint statement expressing grief over the fatal accident and extending condolences to the victims’ families, friends and colleagues.

For a local newsroom accustomed to documenting other people’s emergencies, the normal relationship between journalist and story had abruptly disappeared.

The reporters covering the disaster were also mourning members of their own team.

Who actually operated NewsChopper4?

Although NewsChopper4 provided reporting for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, the helicopter was operated by Angel City Air.

Moreno and Marciniw were employees of the helicopter operator.

That distinction is not unusual in television newsgathering.

A television station can use a branded helicopter and aerial journalists closely associated with its broadcasts while the aircraft itself is owned or operated by a separate aviation company.

Available reporting identifies the aircraft as part of the Eurocopter AS350 family of light helicopters.

Its operator, maintenance history, flight records and mechanical systems will all be relevant to investigators.

But none of those facts should be interpreted as evidence of what caused Tuesday’s crash.

What will investigators examine?

The NTSB is investigating the accident, with the FAA also involved.

The first phase centers on preserving and documenting evidence.

Investigators can examine the helicopter’s engine, rotor system, flight controls, fuel system and other components for evidence of a problem that developed before impact.

Maintenance records can establish the aircraft’s service history and whether mechanical issues had previously been reported.

Investigators can also examine the pilot’s experience, the aircraft’s flight path, weather conditions, communications and available video.

The live NewsChopper4 footage could prove particularly useful because it provides an audio and visual record from immediately before the crash.

Investigators may be able to compare what can be seen and heard in that footage with physical evidence recovered from the aircraft.

The objective is not necessarily to find one component that failed.

Aviation investigations attempt to reconstruct the entire sequence of events that transformed a normal flight into an accident.

That process takes time.

Preliminary factual information can emerge relatively quickly, while a final NTSB determination of probable cause can take substantially longer.

The alarm does not establish the cause

One element of the crash will inevitably receive particular attention: the alarm audible during NewsChopper4’s final broadcast.

It is important not to get ahead of investigators.

An alarm can indicate that an aircraft system detected a condition requiring the crew’s attention. Determining precisely what warning occurred, what triggered it and how it relates to the subsequent descent requires technical analysis.

Similarly, the helicopter’s loss of altitude does not by itself establish why it was descending.

The aviation expert interviewed by AP raised the possibility of engine-power loss and reduced rotor speed based on the available footage.

That provides a preliminary expert interpretation.

It is not a probable-cause finding.

The distinction is particularly important because the final seconds of this accident were recorded and widely visible. Video can make an accident appear more understandable than it actually is.

Seeing the helicopter descend does not reveal why it descended.

Hearing an alarm does not establish what failed.

Until investigators connect the footage with the wreckage, maintenance history and other evidence, the cause remains undetermined.

Fatal news-helicopter crashes are uncommon—but not unprecedented

News helicopters remain a familiar presence over major American cities, particularly Los Angeles, where they have long been used to cover wildfires, police pursuits, traffic, disasters and breaking news.

Fatal accidents involving them are comparatively uncommon.

An Associated Press review of federal accident records and news reports found at least eight fatal crashes involving U.S. news helicopters since 2000, killing 16 people.

Among them was a December 2023 crash involving a helicopter used by Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI. The aircraft went down in a New Jersey forest while returning from an assignment, killing the pilot and photographer aboard.

In 2022, a helicopter used by Charlotte station WBTV crashed beside an interstate, killing meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag.

Los Angeles also has its own history of fatal news-helicopter accidents.

In 2000, a Fox 11 news helicopter crashed and burned at Van Nuys Airport after its pilot reported mechanical problems.

NBC4 experienced an earlier fatal aviation accident in 1977, when Francis Gary Powers—the former CIA U-2 pilot who later became a KNBC helicopter reporter—and cameraman George Spears were killed when their helicopter crashed near the Sepulveda Dam.

Those accidents provide historical context.

They do not provide an explanation for what happened to NewsChopper4.

Every aviation accident has to be investigated on its own evidence.

One disaster became two

The circumstances surrounding Tuesday’s crash are what make the sequence particularly unusual.

NewsChopper4 was not flying toward an unrelated assignment.

Moreno and Marciniw were covering an emergency that had already killed three people and hospitalized six others.

The Metro bus collision brought police, firefighters, journalists and television helicopters into Chatsworth.

Then, while that response was still unfolding, the aircraft documenting it experienced an emergency of its own.

Within hours, NBC4 went from reporting on the victims of the bus collision to reporting the deaths of members of its own aerial news operation.

The sequence is now clear:

A deadly bus collision drew NewsChopper4 to Chatsworth. An alarm sounded during the helicopter’s live coverage. The aircraft lost altitude. It crashed and burned near the original scene. Moreno, Marciniw and a person on the ground were killed. NBC4 then had to report the loss of its own colleagues while still covering the disaster that had brought them there.

What remains unknown is the most important technical question.

Why did the helicopter go down?

Video may eventually help answer it. So may the wreckage, maintenance records and other evidence federal investigators are examining.

But about a day after the crash, that work is only beginning.

For now, the alarm, descent and fire describe what happened.

They do not yet explain why.

Sources

This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed and approved by TrendPulse Analytics before publication.