NewsChopper4 reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw died in a fiery crash while covering a Metro bus accident with fatalities in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
NBC4 anchors Colleen Williams and Carolyn Johnson interrupted a TV broadcast to confirm that their “dear colleagues,” were on the news chopper that crashed.
The tragic accident unfolded in the sky over the scene of a crash between a Metro bus and an SUV that killed 2 people and injured six.
Moreno is heard on a live feed giving instructions to Marciniw to get the best angle of the bus accident.
The chopper’s engine began to sputter and flame out as the aircraft lost altitude. Marciniw can be heard grunting on the live feed.
Seconds before impact with the ground, Moreno said to Marciniw, “Uh oh. Pull, can you… You can’t pull up?”
The crash killed Moreno, Marciniw and a pedestrian on the ground.
The last few minutes of KNBC-TV's helicopter flight was captured on live video transmissions sent back to the station. These were the final moments of that flight; conditions of those on board still unknown.
Details here: https://t.co/CHA5cIVhEe pic.twitter.com/6mIST13BzK
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) September 16, 2026
NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik, who was covering the bus crash on the ground, saw the black plumes of smoke rising in the sky a few blocks away.
NBC4 urgently asked him and his crew to leave the scene of the bus crash and go to the site of the second crash.
Upon arriving at the chopper crash site, Kovacik spoke with a reporter from another news station who told him she believed the doomed chopper belonged to ABC7 News.
After learning the chopper wasn’t ABC7’s, Kovacik expressed relief that it didn’t belong to a rival news station.
“Witnesses are telling us that it is a chopper down,” he said. “It is not from one of our other news stations here. We don’t know where it is from.”
Minutes later, Kovacik learned that the chopper belonged to his news station.
Moreno, 38, and Marciniw, 70, began flying together in 2023. She was a veteran journalist of 15 years and he was a helicopter pilot with over 30 years experience.
Moreno was engaged to Robert Barrientos. The couple announced their engagement in October 2025.
Watch the videos below.
Watch the initial moments when KNBC-TV learned a news helicopter crashed in a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood. At the time, its news team did not know that the helicopter belonged to their station. [Video: KNBC]
Full story: https://t.co/TLTWVy5eUx pic.twitter.com/C7STw2XvrG
— TheDesk.net (@TheDeskDotNet) September 16, 2026
TV-4 pic.twitter.com/GNTLvYGOtn
— DJTru (@DJTru) September 16, 2026