The helicopter was in the air to cover a deadly crash. Minutes later it was the deadly crash. On the evening of September 15, NBC4 Los Angeles’s NewsChopper4 went down between two commercial buildings in Chatsworth while filming the scene of a fatal Metro bus collision, killing the pilot, the aerial reporter aboard, and a person who was simply standing in a parking lot below. By Wednesday morning the clip had run on every network. The question almost nobody on air asked is why a helicopter was orbiting a bus crash at 7 p.m. in the first place, and how many others were up there with it.
Where This Stands Right Now
- Three dead: pilot George Marciniw, aerial photojournalist-reporter Eliana Moreno, and a pedestrian on the ground whose name has not been released. At least one more person was taken to the hospital.
- The Los Angeles Fire Department logged the crash at 6:57 p.m. in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue; the helicopter was fully engulfed when the first engine arrived.
- The aircraft, a 2004 Eurocopter AS350 flown for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, was one of several TV helicopters covering a Metro bus crash nearby that had already killed two people.
- An NTSB investigator was due on scene Wednesday morning; the FAA is also involved. No cause has been given.
Why It Was Up There
Los Angeles stations keep helicopters in the air because a live aerial shot of a wreck, a fire or a chase is the most-watched thing local television produces, and the station that gets there first keeps the audience. A fatal Metro bus collision at rush hour is exactly the kind of call that puts every station’s aircraft over the same few blocks within minutes. On Tuesday evening several of them were orbiting Chatsworth at once, working the same scene at similar altitudes, relying on “see and avoid,” which means the pilots’ own eyes, to stay clear of one another. The NTSB has warned for years that crowded urban airspace and see-and-avoid are a combination that works until it doesn’t. On September 14, one day before the crash, the board said a third of the FAA’s responses to its safety recommendations were “unacceptable.”
What Happened On Mason Avenue
Just before 7 p.m., one of the helicopters dropped out of the sky. LAFD’s first crew reported an unknown helicopter down between two commercial buildings with flames spreading toward parked cars. Firefighters went to an offensive attack on the fire and began triage. When the smoke cleared, two storage containers and four vehicles were burned, and three people were dead. ABC7’s own helicopter crew, hovering over the same neighborhood, described the wreckage behind warehouses off Mason Avenue near the railroad tracks, with a separate container fire burning beside it. NBC4 and Telemundo 52 confirmed in a joint statement that the aircraft was NewsChopper4 and that it was providing aerial coverage when it went down.
The Two People In The Air
George Marciniw was a veteran pilot who grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974. Eliana Moreno, born in Orange County, earned her degree in broadcast journalism and political science from Chapman University in 2010 and had spent years reporting from the air for NBC4 and Telemundo 52. Colleagues at the station were on the air covering the bus crash when their own helicopter went down.
The Person On The Ground
The third victim was not in the helicopter and had nothing to do with the story it was covering. Officials say the person was in the parking lot where the aircraft came down. Their name is being withheld until family is notified. At least one other person near the crash site was hospitalized; their condition had not been released Wednesday morning.
“This is a very, very, very tragic day in Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass said, speaking about both crashes at once.
Two people killed aboard a news helicopter that crashed in Los Angeles have been identified as colleagues and officials paid tribute Wednesday.
The chopper had been covering a nearby crash involving an SUV and a city bus when it crashed near a commercial building and caught… pic.twitter.com/Cailg6iJUV
— The National Desk (@TND) September 16, 2026
What Happens Next
The NTSB will lead the investigation, which typically produces a preliminary report within a few weeks and a final finding a year or more later. Investigators will look at the engine, the flight controls, and the airspace, which had multiple news helicopters working in close quarters over the bus crash. The AS350 is one of the most common news and tour helicopters in the country. Watch for the preliminary report, the identity of the pedestrian, and whether the FAA changes how many aircraft can stack up over a breaking-news scene. That last question is the one the crash actually raises, and it is the one the coverage has skipped.
Sources:
nbclosangeles.com, nypost.com, abc30.com, reuters.com, pbs.org