NBC Los Angeles’ NewsChopper4 crashed in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, on 16 September while covering a deadly SUV-bus collision, killing aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and a pedestrian on the ground identified as Edy Gutierrez Mejia. The helicopter went down just before 7 p.m. between commercial buildings near a storage facility and burst into flames, turning a routine news-gathering flight into a fatal urban aviation accident.
The aircraft was used for aerial coverage by NBCLA and Telemundo 52 and was over the scene of an earlier crash that had already killed two people. Authorities also hospitalised at least one other person after the helicopter impact. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration have opened an investigation, with the NTSB’s investigator-in-charge examining the wreckage and cockpit video and audio expected to be key evidence. The cause remains unknown.