A tragic series of events unfolded in the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday evening when a news helicopter reporting for NBC Los Angeles crashed, leaving three people dead. The aircraft, operated by Angel City Air, was providing aerial coverage of a separate fatal collision between a Metro bus and an SUV that had occurred earlier that afternoon. In a cruel twist of fate, the crew members tasked with documenting the tragedy became part of one.

The helicopter went down just before 7 p.m. in a parking lot near a self storage facility in Chatsworth. Among the deceased were pilot George Marciniw and aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno, both longtime professionals dedicated to their craft. Officials confirmed that a third victim, believed to be a pedestrian on the ground, was also killed upon impact. Two other individuals were transported to local hospitals following the crash. Witnesses described a harrowing scene, noting that the chopper seemed to sway and lose altitude gradually before plummeting into a violent fire that spread to nearby vehicles.

The loss has sent shockwaves through the local media community. During an emotional broadcast, NBC Los Angeles anchors struggled to process the news as they remembered Moreno and Marciniw as passionate journalists who truly loved breaking news. Co anchor Lynette Romero shared that while they are heartbroken, there is some small comfort in knowing that their colleagues died doing work they were deeply passionate about. Both victims were natives of Southern California and had spent years serving the region’s diverse communities across several news outlets.

The scale of the day’s losses prompted reactions from top state leaders, including Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, who lamented that five residents were lost in total across both accidents. As first responders worked to secure the flaming wreckage, federal authorities stepped in to determine why the flight failed. The National Transportation Safety Board has taken the lead on the investigation into the Eurocopter AS 350 B2, assisted by the Federal Aviation Administration, to uncover exactly what caused the aircraft to fall from the sky.