LA News Helicopter and Bus Crashes Kill at Least 5
A television news helicopter crashed and burst into flames in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Tuesday evening while its crew was covering a deadly bus collision nearby, killing two journalists aboard and a bystander on the ground. The twin tragedies in the Chatsworth community of the San Fernando Valley left at least five people dead and stunned a city that had watched the station’s own coverage of the disaster unfold.
The helicopter, a news aircraft branded NewsChopper4 and operated for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, went down shortly before 7 p.m. local time, according to NBC Los Angeles. It came down between two commercial buildings in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, sparking a fire that damaged four cars and two storage containers but did not spread to nearby structures.
Two Incidents, Hours Apart
The day’s first tragedy struck in the afternoon, when an SUV slammed into the side of a Los Angeles Metro bus in Chatsworth. At least two people were killed and six others injured in that collision, and photos and video showed half of the SUV lodged in the bus’s side. Firefighters pulled trapped victims from the mangled vehicles.
Several local television news helicopters, including NewsChopper4, took to the air to cover the crash from above—routine practice in a city where aerial coverage of breaking news is a long-standing tradition. It was during that assignment that the helicopter went down.
The helicopter’s impact was captured in part by its own broadcast, which carried an alarm-like sound shortly before the aircraft descended and the feed cut off. The crash occurred while the crew was providing aerial coverage of the earlier bus collision.
The Victims
Authorities and the station identified the two people aboard as Eliana Moreno, an aerial photojournalist and reporter, and pilot George Marciniw. Both were employees of Angel City Air, the company that operated the chopper for the stations.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in 2010—the same year she earned a degree in broadcast journalism and political science from Chapman University. She had reported for several Southern California news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023. The two were known to viewers as familiar voices during the station’s aerial coverage.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974. The Associated Press later issued a correction clarifying that it was Marciniw, not Moreno, who graduated from Burbank High.
The third victim was identified by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner as Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, a pedestrian who was on the ground when the helicopter came down.
Grief on the Air
The loss was announced by the station’s own newsroom. NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams confirmed during a live broadcast that the downed aircraft was NewsChopper4, her voice shaking with emotion.
“We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it,” Williams said. Moments later, the coverage cut off. In a later on-air confirmation, she said, “We knew it was a news chopper. We knew we’d lost contact with our people out there, and we’ve just received the confirmation.”
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Branden Silverman described the wreckage in stark terms. “From the helicopter itself, it’s pretty well destroyed,” he said. “So we are going to have to go through the rubble and see how many victims there were on board, as well as identify the helicopter; we couldn’t even see a tail.”
More than 50 firefighters responded, and two people were taken to a hospital, according to Fire Battalion Chief Rico A. Gross. Their conditions were not immediately released.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 said in a joint statement that they were “deeply saddened” and extended “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
Mayor Karen Bass called it a devastating night for the city. “Losing five Angelenos is very painful,” she said. “And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time.” Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked emergency crews responding to both crashes and said in a post on X that “our hearts are with the victims and families.”
A Widely Used Aircraft
The helicopter was identified as a Eurocopter (Airbus) AS350 B2, a single-engine light helicopter from a family that has become one of the world’s most widely used civilian designs. Known as the AStar in North America and the Écureuil, or Squirrel, elsewhere, the type is prized for its compact airframe, good visibility, and ability to carry useful payloads—qualities that have made it popular with law enforcement, emergency medical services, and television news operators. According to Aerospace Global News, Airbus has delivered roughly 7,000 helicopters across all Écureuil variants to more than 2,500 customers, accumulating about 40 million flight hours. The B2 variant entered service in 1989.
A Dangerous Beat
The crash underscores the risks of aerial newsgathering. There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the United States since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records cited by The Associated Press. Those include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed a 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 a meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.
In Los Angeles, the tragedy also echoed a much older loss: the death of Francis Gary Powers, the former U-2 spy pilot, who was killed in a 1977 helicopter crash in Encino while working as a “Telecopter” reporter for KNBC.
The Investigation and What’s Next
The cause of the crash is not yet known. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation, with the Federal Aviation Administration, and personnel were expected on scene Wednesday. Investigators will examine the wreckage, flight data, and maintenance history, and the NTSB’s preliminary report will provide the first authoritative account of the flight and the moments before impact.
Early video and audio have prompted speculation about a possible mechanical issue, but officials have not drawn conclusions, and the investigation is in its earliest stages.
As Al Jazeera noted, the circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation, and the full toll from both incidents—two dead in the bus collision and three in the helicopter crash—marks one of the deadliest single evenings for local newsgathering in recent memory. For a city accustomed to seeing its streets and freeways from the sky, the image of a news helicopter falling while covering the news it was meant to report will linger long after the flames were extinguished.