NBC4 reports on crash of its own news helicopter with grief, purpose
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The news team at NBC4 was covering the deadly crash involving a Metro bus in Chatsworth on Tuesday night when, just a few blocks away, a helicopter crashed.
There were several news choppers overhead that had been covering the bus accident.
For the next two hours, anchors and reporters covered the story while informing viewers of a grim fact: The station had lost contact with its Chopper 4 crew.
The journalists at times fought back tears as they reported what they saw. Several on the ground said they were overwhelmed by the support coming from first responders and fellow reporters.
A helicopter crashed into flames Tuesday night in Chatsworth, not far from a serious accident involving a Metro bus that left three people dead.
Then at 9 p.m., veteran NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams confirmed what many viewers suspected.
“We received the confirmation that in fact News Chopper 4 went down just before 7 p.m. tonight in Chatsworth,” said Williams. “We’ve been piecing it together. We knew it was a news chopper. We knew we had lost contact with our people out there. Now we have confirmation.”
“We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process, and to regroup,” she added before ending the live broadcast.
Around 9:40 p.m. NBC resumed its live coverage, which included a news conference near the site of the helicopter crash. Officials including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass; L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Chatsworth; L.A. City Councilmember John Lee; and Los Angeles Fire Capt. Rico Gross updated the community on the incident as well as expressed their condolences for the lives that were lost.
“Members of our local news community ... came here to do their jobs and experienced a profound tragedy of their own. This has been a deeply traumatic day for far too many people,” Horvath said.
Once the conference ended, anchor Williams said, “Our colleagues lost their lives this evening; they were in News Chopper 4.”
KNBC confirmed that reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed in the crash.
Moreno graduated from Chapman University with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science.
She’d been flying in news choppers since 2010. Marciniw, her helicopter pilot, grew up in Southern California, graduating from Burbank High School in 1974.
“They began flying together in 2023. George and Eliana often flew together, and you probably recall she often referred to him when they were covering stories together,” Williams said.
The anchor earlier described how the staff first learned of the tragedy.
The helicopter team of Moreno and Marciniw were in the air covering the bus crash, and “we’re getting ready to go on the air with that ... and we see this large plume of smoke, and realize something else has happened.”
“Just a couple blocks away, our helicopter went down, it crashed,” Williams said.
“One person in the parking lot was killed, and two people on board the chopper also lost their lives. It’s just so difficult to comprehend and to wrap your brain around.”
In a statement to The Times, NBC-TV Channel 4 and Telemundo’s KVEA-TV Channel 52 said the helicopter involved in the fatal crash provided aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives,” the statement said.
News helicopters are a vital part of news gathering in Southern California, helping chronicle brush fires, mass shootings and, of course, police pursuits.
The cause of the NBC4 helicopter crash is unknown.
NBC4 said the chopper was operated by Angel City Air.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said a third person on the ground was also killed.
The chopper went down between two commercial buildings in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue around 7 p.m.
Frank Buckley, a KTLA anchor, honored the journalists.
“Condolences to our friends at NBCLA on a painful evening after their news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth,” Buckley said on X. “The helicopter pilots and crews at all of our stations are vital members of our teams who are dedicated to informing the public and this is a terrible loss.”
KCAL reporter Desmond Shaw told anchor Pat Harvey about the horror of coming on the scene immediately after the crash.
“I just looked at it and I immediately knew what we were looking at,” he told Harvey.
He said he knew he had to put his emotions aside and report the story. He said his phone immediate filled with calls and texts from people checking on him,
“I am shell-shocked,” he said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement: “I extend my deepest condolences to the entire NBC4 community during this incredibly difficult time,” she said.
This is not the first time NBC4 has been hit by an aviation tragedy.
In 1977, Francis Gary Powers was killed in a helicopter crash in Encino while working as a “Telecopter” reporter for KNBC.
Powers and a KNBC cameraman, George Spears, were returning from covering brush fires north of Santa Barbara when the helicopter Powers was piloting crashed into an open field near the Sepulveda Dam, carving a 21-foot-long gouge in the ground and killing both men.
According to The Times’ archives, Powers was a “conservative flier” who, on his final flight, ran out of fuel.
Powers was a figure in Cold War history. While employed as a U-2 spy plane pilot for the CIA, Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.
In 2000, a Fox 11 helicopter covering the Academy Awards crashed and burst into flames at Van Nuys Airport. The pilot reported mechanical difficulties moments before the crash in the southeast corner of the airport, The Times reported at the time. A television helicopter pilot from a competing station who overheard emergency radio transmissions from the helicopter said the craft was headed for the Shrine Auditorium just after 10 p.m. when the pilot reported a loss of hydraulic power.
In 2019, an ABC7 chopper was struck by an object believed to be a drone while flying over downtown Los Angeles. No one was hurt.
At the end of Tuesday’s news conference, KNBC reporter Robert Kovacik, who was kneeling in the front row out of sight from the cameras, stood up and leaned over the tape line. A feed from KCAL-TV showed Mayor Bass recognized him and came over and gave him a long hug.
Horvath and members of the Los Angeles Fire Department also could be seen speaking with and hugging Kovacik and other NBC4 journalists on the scene.
Editorial assistant Jasmine Mendez contributed to this report.
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