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Three killed in Los Angeles news helicopter crash
September 16, 2026
A news helicopter crashed in Los Angeles while covering a fatal bus collision, killing journalist Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and a person on the ground.
Eliana Moreno was born in Orange County and graduated from Chapman University with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science in 2010, and pilot George Marciniw grew up in Southern California.
Key facts
- Orange County, which lies south of L.A., was where Moreno was born, NBC News reported. She finished at Chapman University in 2010, taking a degree that combined broadcast journalism with political science.
- The two people aboard the aircraft both worked for Angel City Air, according to NBC News: pilot George Marciniw and Eliana Moreno, an aerial photojournalist whose work was well known to audiences of the station and of its Spanish-language sister station.
- Three people died when a helicopter that was covering a deadly bus collision for NBC L.A. went down. The two identified as having been on board were pilot George Marciniw and journalist Eliana Moreno.
- Southern California was also where Marciniw spent his childhood, per the station, and Burbank High School was where he earned his diploma.
- Crews responding to the wreck, which came in just before 7 p.m., arrived to find flames consuming the aircraft, he added. The fire had already reached vehicles parked close by.
NBC News reports that a news helicopter crashed in Los Angeles while covering a fatal bus collision, killing three people. The victims aboard were the aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno, familiar to viewers of the station and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52, and the pilot George Marciniw, both Angel City Air employees. Officials say the third person killed was on the ground at the time of the crash. Fox News carries the same account.
The two outlets corroborate the sequence. Responders reached the crash, reported shortly before 7 p.m., and found the helicopter engulfed in flames, with the fire spread to nearby parked vehicles. A witness says the helicopter did not look right to him as it flew, and that he pulled over near the crash as the fire roared.
Both outlets also carry the same biographical detail. Moreno was born in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and graduated from Chapman University in 2010 with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science, and Marciniw grew up in Southern California, where he graduated from Burbank High School. The identities of the dead, the location and the fatal bus collision the crew was covering are corroborated across the coverage. What brought the helicopter down is not, and the NTSB investigation into the crash remains open.
NBC News relayed one recollection of the moments before the crash: “I saw the helicopter — something didn’t look right. And I told my wife, ‘That helicopter is not flying right.’”
Still developing
The NTSB investigation into the crash stands as the last development at the time of draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- NBC News — 3 dead after news helicopter reporting for NBC L.A. crashes while covering fatal bus collision
- Fox News — NBC reporter, pilot among the victims identified in deadly Los Angeles helicopter crash
Toggle read the full reports of 4 of the 5 outlets counted on this event. The other 1 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.