NBC Los Angeles News Helicopter Crash

The story so far

As of September 16, 2026

A news helicopter used by NBC Los Angeles crashed in a Chatsworth commercial area while covering a deadly bus collision nearby. Three people were killed: reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw, and a pedestrian on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia. The helicopter came down in a driveway between warehouses, striking cargo containers, and the fire that followed damaged four vehicles and two storage containers before it was put out by more than 70 firefighters.

The crash unfolded as multiple news helicopters were already orbiting the bus crash scene, a routine but crowded setup in Los Angeles breaking-news coverage. In the final seconds of the broadcast from the NBC helicopter, the engine sound fades, the camera angle drops, and Moreno is heard asking, “You can’t pull up?” before the feed cuts. That recording gives investigators a clear, time-stamped glimpse of the failure sequence even though the wreckage itself was heavily burned.

The National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency that investigates crashes, has opened an inquiry, with the Federal Aviation Administration, the aviation regulator, also involved. With the aircraft largely destroyed, the case will lean on maintenance logs, flight tracking, communications, video from other aircraft at the scene, and the station’s on-air audio to determine whether a mechanical problem, pilot emergency, or another factor caused the loss of power and control.

What is at stake now is how safely news helicopters operate over dense urban corridors when many converge on the same story, and how risk to people on the ground is managed when aircraft work at low altitude near businesses and streets. Los Angeles has long relied on helicopters for live coverage, and past fatal crashes have shown the consequences when something goes wrong. This investigation will test both the airworthiness and the operating practices that define that coverage.