Federal investigators say cockpit video from a doomed NBC Los Angeles news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth, killing three people, is the single most critical piece of evidence recovered so far, and they plan to run a full sound spectrum analysis on the recording.
The Eurocopter AS 350 B2, known as News Chopper 4, went down between two commercial buildings in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles on the evening of September 15, 2026, killing helicopter reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw, and 29-year-old bystander Edy Gutierrez Mejia. A fourth person was taken to a hospital; that person's identity and condition have not been released.
The helicopter had been covering a separate, deadly collision, a Metro bus struck by a wrong-way SUV, when it lost altitude and fell from the sky. The crash was captured, in part, by the station's own live broadcast feed, giving the National Transportation Safety Board a rare, real-time audio-visual record of the moments before impact.
NTSB investigator-in-charge Fabian Salazar told reporters that the live video feed Moreno and Marciniw were broadcasting is central to the probe. ABC News reported Salazar's assessment of the footage:
"What we are going to do is get a pristine copy of that recording and send it to our recorder's lab for a sound spectrum analysis, because in that recording, we are clearly hearing sounds that are consistent with the engine changing its speed. We're also hearing tones that are being created that are likely advisories to the pilots."
Salazar called the recording "probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far." The NTSB began its on-scene examination of the wreckage on September 16. A preliminary report is due within 30 days; a final report identifying the cause could take up to 18 months.
The live broadcast feed captured the helicopter shaking, alarms sounding, and the aircraft falling before the signal cut out. An unidentified voice on the recording asked, "You can't pull up?", a question investigators have not yet attributed to Moreno, Marciniw, or anyone else.
The helicopter was one of several news choppers dispatched to cover a fatal bus-and-SUV collision that had unfolded roughly two hours earlier. AP News reported that driver Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, drove her SUV the wrong way, ran a red light, and struck a city bus, killing Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, and injuring several others. Rios was arrested on murder charges, with bail set at $4 million.
Cindy Rios, the arrested driver's mother, spoke to reporters about the collision.
"The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is just extremely disturbing. If anything, I'm sorry for the other families... My daughter's alive. People lost their lives."
That bus crash alone would have been a major Los Angeles story. Instead, it became the first act of a far larger tragedy, one that ultimately claimed five lives across two incidents and left a newsroom in mourning.
Both Moreno and Marciniw worked for Angel City Air, the company that operated News Chopper 4 for NBC4 and Telemundo 52. NBC Los Angeles said the pair had "logged hundreds of hours together in the sky," including coverage of the devastating January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
Fox News reported a joint statement from the stations:
"We are deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in. "Our hearts are with the victims and families of tonight's devastating Metro bus and helicopter crashes in Chatsworth, and with the entire NBC4 family," Newsom said.
NBC anchor Robert Kovacik, who had worked alongside Moreno and Marciniw for years, was visibly emotional while reporting live from the crash scene. The New York Post reported that Kovacik was seen wiping tears in a police car near the wreckage. On air, he described the moment the newsroom realized what had happened:
"You think about it ladies, as we deal with this day of dueling tragedies here in Chatsworth, we were just getting ready to come on air for the NBC 4 news at 7:00 tonight and we were there."
A memorial for Moreno and Marciniw appeared at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, where the helicopter had been based. NBC Los Angeles announced a vigil for Thursday evening in Chatsworth.
The crash itself ignited a fire that damaged four vehicles and two storage containers near the impact site, Just The News reported. More than 50 firefighters responded to the scene. The helicopter was destroyed.
NBC anchor Colleen Williams described the grim confirmation on air: "We knew it was a news chopper, we knew we'd lost contact with our people out there, and we've just received the confirmation that, in fact, News Chopper 4 went down just before 7 o'clock tonight in Chatsworth."
Edy Gutierrez Mejia, the 29-year-old killed on the ground, was near the commercial buildings when the helicopter came down. No public information about Gutierrez Mejia's reason for being in the area has been released.
Investigators have not said whether a flight data recorder or any other onboard recording device was recovered from the wreckage. They have not identified which agencies beyond the NTSB, such as the FAA or LAPD, are participating in the probe. And the identity of the voice asking "You can't pull up?" remains unknown.
The sound spectrum analysis Salazar described will attempt to isolate engine-speed changes and cockpit advisory tones from the broadcast audio. That work will happen at the NTSB's recorder lab, though Salazar did not say how long the analysis would take.
Thirty days will bring a preliminary report. Eighteen months could pass before the public gets a final answer on what brought the helicopter down. For the families of Moreno, Marciniw, and Gutierrez Mejia, and for the fourth person still hospitalized, the wait has already begun.
Three people went to work on a Tuesday evening in Los Angeles and never came home. The least their families deserve is a thorough, honest accounting of why, and an investigation that moves at the speed the facts demand, not the speed of bureaucratic habit.
