TV News Helicopter Crash in Los Angeles Kills Three People

Three people were killed and one injured when a TV news helicopter crashed between two commercial buildings in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, the city’s fire department said.

The helicopter was providing coverage for KNBC and Telemundo 52, the stations said. Three people were pronounced dead at the scene, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department statement. The fourth was taken to a local hospital in unknown condition.

The fatalities included reporter Eliana Moreno and helicopter pilot George Marciniw, the stations said. They were employees of Angel City Air and had been flying together since 2023.

One of those killed was a pedestrian in a parking lot, Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Branden Silverman said. The victim was pulled from the flames and pronounced dead by paramedics.

The crash came hours after three people were killed and six more injured when an SUV collided with a Metro bus in Chatsworth, which is in the San Fernando Valley, north of central Los Angeles.

Several TV news helicopters were in the skies reporting on the crash, the stations said.

The first crew to arrive found the helicopter down between buildings, with fire spreading to four vehicles, the LAFD said. Fifty-six firefighters responded and later extinguished the fire, with no structures exposed. Four automobiles and two storage containers were damaged.

The helicopter was engulfed in flames when crews arrived, Silverman said at an earlier briefing, when searchers were still going through the wreckage.

The make and type of the helicopter weren’t known, and it was unclear where the aircraft had taken off, according to the LAFD.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will handle the investigation.

Top photo: First responders on the scene after a helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California on Sept. 15. Photographer: Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images. Bloomberg.