3 people killed in news helicopter crash while covering LA bus collision

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A news helicopter used by NBC and Telemundo crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood and burst into flames, killing three people while reporters were covering the collision of an SUV and a city bus, officials and the news outlet said.

NBC4 Los Angeles reported that two people aboard the helicopter — Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw — were killed Tuesday when the chopper went down. Another person was killed on the ground, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

The helicopter crash happened as news crews were reporting on a collision from earlier in the day when an SUV slammed into the middle of a city bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others. Photos and videos online showed half the SUV lodged in the side of the bus.

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There were no immediate details on what may have caused the helicopter to crash. But an alarm can be heard sounding inside the helicopter's cockpit as it loses altitude in the final video the crew broadcast live before the crash. Just after the beeping noise starts, a woman's voice says "uh oh." The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and goes down. The woman says "You can't pull up?" before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.

The helicopter went down near a large storage facility in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. At least four cars and two storage containers on the ground burned after the helicopter caught fire, which was quickly put out, according to officials. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik was at the bus scene and saw black smoke and rushed to the helicopter crash site. Dozens of police cars surrounded the scene as ambulances entered.

Two people were brought to a hospital, said Rico A. Gross, a fire department battalion chief. Their conditions were not immediately released.

News station identifies those on the helicopter

The station's website identified the dead aboard the helicopter as Moreno, a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station's aerial coverage, and Marciniw. Both were employees of Angel City Air, which operated the chopper.

Moreno, born in Orange County, joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several Southern California news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, the NBC4 website said.

Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.

"I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss," NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado said during a newscast early Wednesday. She was standing near the crash site during the newscast and said a hazmat crew was cleaning up jet fuel.

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In a tribute to Moreno and Marciniw, the newscast referred to them as "the team in the sky," saying Moreno would often post videos from her job and was in awe of the view she had. News anchor Lynette Romero held a colleague's hand and wiped away tears after hearing Moreno's voice when one of her posts was played.

In an interview with the station, Esteban Jimenez, a pilot, said he had known Marciniw since the 1990s. He said Marciniw had been his instructor.

"I just talked to him on Sunday. We were talking about the aviation business and retiring," he said.

Expert talks about what may have caused the crash

Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm sounding in the helicopter's final video sounds like the low rotor RPM warning horn that signals the main rotor is no longer spinning enough to keep the helicopter in the air.

"It just has all the earmarks of a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed," said Guzzetti who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA.

Guzzetti said the pilot appeared to be trying to do an emergency maneuver called an autorotation to use the wind to force the rotor to spin again much like a breeze turns a windmill. Doing that can create a bit of lift that could help cushion the impact, but Guzzetti said there would have been little opportunity to do that because the helicopter had been hovering at a low altitude beforehand.

Condolences for the victims and their families

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said in a statement they "are deeply saddened" and extended "heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives."

"Losing five Angelenos is very painful," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. "And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the emergency crews responding to both crashes and said in a post on X that "our hearts are with the victims and families."

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said personnel will arrive Wednesday to begin an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.

Other crashes involving news helicopters

The station said this is the second aviation tragedy in its history. In 1977, a KNBC news helicopter crashed when it ran out of fuel while returning to the station after covering a wildfire in Santa Barbara, killing the pilot and camera operator. The pilot, former U.S. Air Force officer Francis Gary Powers, had been in the news years earlier when he was shot down and captured while flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union for the CIA, an ordeal portrayed in the movie "Bridge of Spies."

There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts. They include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed the pilot and a photographer aboard a helicopter used by Philadelphia station WPVI and a 2022 crash beside a Charlotte, North Carolina, interstate that killed a pilot and meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.

Golden reported from Seattle.