Aerial photographer and reporter Eliana Moreno has been named among three people killed after an NBC Los Angeles helicopter crashed in the city’s suburbs.
NBC’s helicopter was hovering over the scene of a fatal bus collision in Los Angeles at around 7 p.m. Tuesday, which left at least two people dead and six others injured. Moreno was filming and reporting on the crash for NBC when the live-feed footage during the television news report began to wobble before suddenly cutting out.
The helicopter crashed near a one-storey commercial building in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley and burst into flames — killing three people. Moreno, a 38-year-old aerial photojournalist-reporter and pilot George Marciniw died aboard the chopper. The third victim on the ground, tourist Edy Gutiérrez Mejia, was visiting from Guatemala.
During emotional live coverage on NBC Los Angeles, news anchor Colleen Williams confirmed it was the local news station’s helicopter that crashed.
“We knew we’d lost contact with our people out there,” Williams says, while crying as she reported the news on air. “We’ve just received the confirmation that, in fact, News Chopper 4 went down just before 7 o’clock tonight in Chatsworth… we’re going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process and to regroup.”
According to a report by NBC News, Moreno was born in Orange County, California, and studied broadcast journalism and political science at Chapman University, graduating in 2010. Moreno had known she wanted to be a television news reporter since she was 11 years old. Moreno was a helicopter reporter and photographer familiar to viewers of NBC Los Angeles. She also reported in Spanish, providing coverage for Telemundo 52, the Spanish-language sister channel of NBC 4.
She described her work as “the best job in the world” on social media. In a video post shared on Instagram in July, Moreno showed how she operated the camera as well as reported on aerial news for the TV station.
NBC 4 described Moreno as a “seasoned aerial journalist” who had covered “countless police pursuits” and other news events. She is survived by her fiancé Robert Barrientos who she reportedly became engaged to in 2025.
Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one.
