NTSB calls live broadcast video key evidence in LA helicopter crash

Video and audio recorded aboard a news helicopter as it went down in Los Angeles are the most important evidence gathered so far in a crash that killed three people, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. The aircraft fell between two commercial buildings in the Chatsworth neighborhood on Tuesday evening while its crew was covering a fatal bus collision nearby.

The Airbus Helicopters AS350 B-2, registered N358TV, crashed about 7 p.m. Tuesday while on an electronic newsgathering flight, NTSB senior air safety investigator Fabian Salazar said at a briefing Wednesday. It was carrying a pilot and a local television reporter to cover a traffic collision. Eliana Moreno, 38, an aerial reporter whose work appeared on NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, and pilot George Marciniw were killed. The helicopter was substantially damaged and caught fire, according to the agency.

A man on the ground was also killed. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office identified him as Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. Two other people were taken to hospitals, one of them after an apparent panic attack and the other in unknown condition, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

Engine failure heard on the final broadcast

ABC7 Los Angeles, citing an aviation expert who reviewed the footage, reported that the video indicates the engine failed just before 7 p.m. The station said it is not airing that video or the audio of the warning tones heard in the aircraft. Salazar said the recording contains sounds consistent with the engine changing its speed, along with tones that were likely advisories to the pilot. Investigators plan to obtain a pristine copy of the live report and send it to the NTSB's recorder laboratory for a sound spectrum analysis.

The agency is still gathering facts and has not determined a cause, Salazar said. He said the NTSB dispatched an investigator because the accident involved a fatality. He also offered condolences to those affected.

The video that was actually taken while the reporter was doing live coverage, that video is probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far.

An aviation expert told ABC7 Los Angeles that the video and audio make clear the engine failed, and that why it failed and why the pilot was unable to land successfully are the open questions for the NTSB. Asked generally about engine failure, Salazar said helicopter pilots are trained to enter autorotation, using the rotor system to descend and land, but he stressed that he was not drawing conclusions about this crash.

What investigators plan to examine next

NTSB investigators, FAA personnel and representatives for the helicopter's airframe and engine manufacturers examined the wreckage Wednesday. Salazar said the plan was to collect as much data from the scene as possible and to interview witnesses, after which the helicopter will be moved to a secure facility for a closer examination. He asked anyone with information about either the traffic collision or the helicopter crash to contact the agency at witness@ntsb.gov.

Maintenance logbooks, weather information and the pilot's training records are part of the review, as is video from security cameras on buildings near the crash site. The crash sequence, the helicopter's altitude and whether the aircraft may have been operating in or out of ground effect also remain under investigation.

A preliminary report is expected within about 30 days. A final report, including a determination of probable cause, could take as long as 18 months. Salazar told reporters the agency was not trying to answer that question in its first days at the scene: "The NTSB will not be looking for a probable cause while we're out here today or tomorrow," he said.

Firefighters found the helicopter fully engulfed in flames, with a thick plume of black smoke rising over the neighborhood. Fire Capt. Branden Silverman said near the scene that the aircraft was "pretty well destroyed" and that crews would have to go through the rubble to determine how many victims were on board and to identify the helicopter. They could not even see a tail, he said.

The bus collision the crew was covering

The crew was reporting on a collision from earlier in the day, when an SUV slammed into the middle of a Los Angeles Metro bus at Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue around 5 p.m., killing two people and injuring six others. Photos and videos posted online showed half the SUV lodged in the side of the bus. Several television news helicopters were over the west San Fernando Valley community covering it.

Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the bus collision. Rios was driving her SUV southbound in the northbound lanes of De Soto Avenue when she ran a red light, nearly struck a car crossing the intersection and then hit the bus. Bail was set at $4 million. Prosecutors had not filed charges as of Wednesday.

The helicopter crash was reported just before 7 p.m. in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue. At least four cars and two storage containers burned, and the fire was quickly put out, officials said. More than 70 firefighters were deployed. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik, who was at the bus scene, saw black smoke and went to the helicopter site. Dozens of police cars surrounded it as ambulances arrived.

A woman who saw the helicopter go down told NBCLA that her husband, who works in law enforcement, noticed something wrong with the aircraft. He said the helicopter looked strange, she recounted, and they saw it swaying; about five seconds later, they saw large smoke.

Confirmed on air during live coverage

Colleen Williams, an NBC4 Los Angeles anchor, confirmed during live broadcasts that two people aboard the helicopter had been killed. "We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it," Williams said, her voice shaking with emotion. Moments later the coverage cut off.

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said in a statement that they were deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for the stations was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, and extended their "heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives."

Three dead, two hospitalized after Chatsworth crash

NewsChopper4 was operated by Angel City Air and was providing coverage for NBCLA and Telemundo 52 when it went down at 9151 N. Mason Ave. in Chatsworth, between two commercial buildings, just before 7 p.m. Tuesday. Moreno and Marciniw were both Angel City Air employees. They had been flying together since 2023.

Two people were taken to a hospital, said Rico A. Gross, a fire department battalion chief, at a late-night news conference Tuesday. Their conditions were not immediately released. The man killed on the ground was identified by the coroner's office the following day.

The crew and the man on the ground

Moreno was born in Orange County and was a 2010 graduate of Chapman University, where she earned a degree in broadcast journalism. She joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in September 2010 and reported for several Southern California news outlets. NBCLA described her as a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station's aerial coverage.

Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974. He had logged more than 14,000 flight hours during his career, CNN reported. Gutierrez Mejia had come to Los Angeles to meet a cousin and collect a car to take back to Guatemala, ABC7 reported.

Bass said the city had lost five Angelenos across the two crashes. "Losing five Angelenos is very painful," she said. "And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time." Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the emergency crews who responded to both crashes and said in a post on X that "our hearts are with the victims and families."

Fatal news helicopter crashes since 2000

There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the United States since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts by The Associated Press. They include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed the pilot and a photographer aboard a helicopter used by the Philadelphia station WPVI, and a 2022 crash beside a Charlotte, North Carolina, interstate that killed a pilot and a meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.