Footage obtained from a building near the crash site shows an NBC news helicopter hovering over a Chatsworth intersection before abruptly dropping from the sky and slamming into a self-storage parking lot, killing all three people aboard and on the ground, and federal investigators still cannot say why.
The video, obtained by NBC Los Angeles from a nearby building, captures what federal investigators are now treating as critical evidence: the Airbus helicopter holding position above the scene of a separate deadly bus crash, then losing altitude without warning and disappearing behind a roofline. Smoke rose roughly twenty seconds after impact. Flames followed within fifty seconds.
Three people died. Reporter Eliana Moreno, 38, a sixteen-year veteran aerial journalist known to Southern California viewers as "Eli in the heli," was killed alongside pilot George Marciniw. On the ground, 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, a bystander near the storage facility, never had a chance to move. A Fox News report confirmed a fourth person was injured and hospitalized.
The helicopter had been covering a crash between an SUV and a Metro bus when it went down Tuesday night. That collision was itself a disaster. The Associated Press reported that 36-year-old Bailee Lynn Rios drove her SUV the wrong way and struck a city bus, killing two passengers, Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, and injuring six others. One bus passenger was fully ejected. Another was partially thrown from the vehicle. Rios has been arrested on murder charges.
The combined death toll from both incidents reached five in a single evening in the same neighborhood.
Moreno and Marciniw were employees of Angel City Air, the company that operated NBC4's NewsChopper4. The helicopter had been positioned above the intersection to provide live aerial coverage, the kind of routine assignment Moreno had handled thousands of times across her career.
The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California issued a statement mourning both crew members:
"With heavy hearts, the board and members of the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California join our broadcast community in mourning the loss of pilot George Marciniw and Eliana Moreno, the Golden Mike Award, winning aerial journalist known to viewers of NBC Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, and to her many followers, as 'Eli in the heli.' For 16 years, Eliana brought Southern California the news from above: wildfires, police pursuits, and countless breaking stories, delivered with the steadiness and dedication that earned her the trust of viewers across the region."
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 released a joint statement as well. "We are deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening," the stations said. "We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives."
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA dispatched investigators to the scene. Newly released footage appears to rule out a simple fuel exhaustion, but investigators have not confirmed any preliminary cause. The NTSB said it is probing whether the Airbus helicopter suffered an engine or mechanical failure.
Pieces of the helicopter were loaded onto a truck and transported to a specialized facility in Phoenix, Arizona, for detailed wreckage examination. The agency urged anyone with additional video from the crash scene to come forward as investigators work to reconstruct the helicopter's final moments.
Fatal aviation accidents have drawn increasing federal scrutiny in recent months. An Amazon cargo jet crash in Miami that killed five people is already under separate NTSB investigation, raising broader questions about whether safety oversight is keeping pace with the volume of commercial and news aviation operations.
The newly released video does not show the helicopter's rotors or any visible mechanical distress before the descent, only the sudden, vertical drop. That gap in visual evidence is part of what makes the NTSB's work so critical. Without a clear external indicator, the answer likely sits inside the wreckage now in Arizona.
The chain of events that put the helicopter over Chatsworth began with Rios's wrong-way collision. Her mother, Cindy Rios, spoke publicly about the arrest. "The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is just extremely disturbing," she said. "If anything, I'm sorry for the other families... My daughter's alive. People lost their lives."
Johaunna Castillo, the daughter of bus crash victim Daniel Castillo, said in a statement: "There are no words that can truly capture how much we will miss him or the space he leaves behind in our lives."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement acknowledging both disasters. "Our hearts are with the victims and families of tonight's devastating Metro bus and helicopter crashes in Chatsworth, and with the entire NBC4 family," Newsom said.
The helicopter crash during a live broadcast sent shockwaves through the local news industry. Moreno was a fixture of Southern California's breaking-news coverage. Her Golden Mike Award recognized years of steady, reliable reporting from above some of the region's most dangerous events, wildfires, police pursuits, and multi-vehicle pileups.
A candlelight vigil was held Thursday night at St. John Eudes Parish in Chatsworth to honor Moreno, Marciniw, and Gutierrez Mejia. The parish sits in the same neighborhood where all three lost their lives.
Gutierrez Mejia, the 29-year-old bystander, was simply near the storage facility when the helicopter came down. His death underscores a reality that aviation safety regulators have long acknowledged: when aircraft fail over populated areas, the people on the ground bear the risk without any choice in the matter.
Fatal accidents involving aircraft near civilian areas have become a recurring concern. A father and son were killed earlier this year when their small plane flew into a storm, and a ground worker died at a Montreal airport during a routine pushback, each incident a reminder that the margin for error in aviation is razor-thin.
The NTSB's full investigation could take months. Until then, the people of Chatsworth, and the families of three dead, are left with a forty-second video, a burned-out parking lot, and no answers.
When a news helicopter drops out of the sky onto a storage-lot parking space and kills a man who was just going about his evening, the public deserves more than patience, it deserves a system that finds out why and makes sure it cannot happen again.