At just after five o'clock on Tuesday evening, a Metro bus and a passenger vehicle collided on Nordhoff Street in Chatsworth. People were killed. Firefighters worked to free those trapped inside the bus.
News helicopters went up, as they do. Several of them circled the intersection in the San Fernando Valley, filming the wreckage below for stations across Los Angeles.
Shortly before seven, one of them came down.
NewsChopper4, the helicopter that provided aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, crashed into a parking lot on the 9100 block of Mason Avenue, a few blocks from the scene it had been covering. It caught fire on impact.
Three people are dead.
Who was lost
Aboard the helicopter were Eliana Moreno, an aerial photojournalist, and George Marciniw, the pilot. Both were employees of Angel City Air, which operates the aircraft for the stations. Both were killed.
A third person died on the ground. According to local reporting they were standing in a parking lot at the time. They have not been publicly identified, and are not named here.
Two other people were taken to hospital, one after an apparent panic attack and one in a condition that has not been released.
The station had to report it itself
There is a particular cruelty in how this became public.
NBC4 lost contact with its own aircraft and crew while its newsroom was covering the bus collision. Viewers watching live saw the station trying to reach its helicopter. Veteran anchor Colleen Williams then confirmed on air what had happened.
Very few journalists ever have to do that. Williams had to tell an audience, in real time, that her colleagues' helicopter had gone down while doing the job the broadcast was about.
In a joint statement, NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said they were deeply saddened that a helicopter providing their aerial news coverage had been involved in a fatal accident, and extended condolences "to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives."
Eliana Moreno
She decided she wanted to be a news reporter when she was eleven years old.
Moreno was born and raised in Orange County and graduated from Chapman University in 2010 with dual degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. She worked as a reporter and anchor for English and Spanish-language outlets across Orange County before joining the Angel City Air helicopter team in September 2010.
That was sixteen years ago. She spent them in the air over Southern California, reporting on wildfires, police pursuits, traffic collisions and whatever else was unfolding below. Her station described her as a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 viewers which is exactly right, and worth pausing on. Enormous numbers of people in Los Angeles knew Eliana Moreno's voice without ever having seen her face. She was the person explaining what you were looking at from above.
George Marciniw
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
He was a career pilot, and he and Moreno had been flying together since 2023. Three years in a small cockpit doing the same job most days makes for a particular kind of working partnership.
At the scene
The helicopter was almost completely destroyed. More than 50 firefighters responded, and the aircraft was fully engulfed when they arrived, sending a thick column of black smoke over the Valley. The fire spread to four vehicles and two storage containers before being put out.
"From the helicopter itself, it's pretty well destroyed," said Brandon Silverman of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Investigators would have to work through the wreckage to establish how many people had been aboard.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it "a heartbreaking night for our city", saying her thoughts were first and foremost with the families of those lost. Governor Gavin Newsom said his heart was with the victims and families of both crashes, and with the NBC4 family.
What is known about the cause
Nothing.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are both investigating. NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris confirmed late on Tuesday that the agency was investigating and said nothing further.
NTSB investigations of this kind typically produce a preliminary report within a few weeks and a final determination of probable cause considerably later, often more than a year afterwards. Anything circulating tonight about why this happened is speculation, and on a night when three families have just been told, it is worth resisting.
Two crashes, a few blocks apart
The bus collision that NewsChopper4 was covering happened at 5.03pm on Nordhoff Street, between a Metro bus and a passenger vehicle. Reports of the toll vary, with some outlets reporting two dead and others three, along with several injured. Firefighters worked to free trapped passengers.
By the end of the evening, two separate incidents a few blocks apart had killed at least five people in one Los Angeles neighbourhood.
What happens next
The NTSB will take control of the wreckage and begin its examination. The names of those involved will be formally confirmed by the coroner's office. The third victim, the person on the ground, will be identified once their family has been notified.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 will keep broadcasting, which is its own strange difficulty a newsroom reporting on the deaths of its own.
