A news helicopter covering one deadly crash in Los Angeles became the center of a second tragedy Tuesday evening when NBC4’s NewsChopper4 plunged into a commercial area in Chatsworth and burst into flames, killing three people.

The helicopter went down shortly before 7 p.m. Sept. 15 between two commercial buildings in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, only blocks from the scene of an earlier collision involving a Metro bus and an SUV.

NBC Los Angeles later confirmed the aircraft was NewsChopper4, which was providing aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 when it crashed.

Aerial journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, who were aboard the helicopter, were killed. A third person on the ground also died. Two additional people were transported to a hospital, according to updated reports from authorities.

NewsChopper4 Was Covering Another Fatal Crash

The crew had been dispatched to Chatsworth after an SUV collided with a Metro bus earlier Tuesday evening.

That crash happened shortly after 5 p.m. and killed at least two people while sending six others to hospitals, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The deadly collision drew emergency crews and multiple news helicopters to the area.

NewsChopper4 was among them.

NBC4 was preparing its coverage of the bus crash when employees at the station noticed another large plume of smoke rising nearby. The station then realized it had lost contact with its own helicopter crew.

For roughly two hours, NBC4 journalists continued reporting on the developing situation without publicly confirming whether the helicopter involved was theirs.

Then, shortly after 9 p.m., anchor Colleen Williams delivered the devastating confirmation on air.

NewsChopper4 had gone down.

NBC4 subsequently confirmed that Moreno and Marciniw, two longtime members of its aerial news operation, had died.

Helicopter Crashed Between Commercial Buildings

The helicopter came down in an industrial and commercial area near Mason Avenue.

More than 70 firefighters responded as flames engulfed the wreckage and damaged vehicles and storage containers on the ground. Firefighters extinguished the blaze while emergency personnel searched the crash site for victims.

Two people were aboard the helicopter.

Both were killed.

The third person killed was on the ground when the aircraft came down. Authorities initially reported that four patients had been assessed, with three pronounced dead and one transported to a hospital, but officials later said a second person had also been hospitalized.

The conditions of the hospitalized victims were not immediately disclosed.

NBC4 Loses Two Members of Its News Team

Moreno was an experienced aerial journalist who reported for both NBC4 and Telemundo 52.

Known to viewers and colleagues for reporting from above major breaking-news scenes, she had worked in aerial journalism since 2010 and had covered everything from police pursuits to Southern California wildfires. She and Marciniw began regularly flying together in 2023.

Marciniw was a highly experienced helicopter pilot and longtime flight instructor.

NBC4 described the pair as its “eyes and ears in the sky,” a role that put them over some of Southern California's biggest breaking stories.

On Tuesday, the story they were covering suddenly became their own.

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 released a joint statement expressing their condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those killed.

Cause of Crash Under Investigation

What caused NewsChopper4 to suddenly go down was not immediately known.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.

The investigation will focus on the aircraft, its flight path and the circumstances immediately preceding the rapid descent.

Until federal investigators complete that work, any claim about what caused the helicopter to lose altitude would be premature.

The aircraft was operated by Angel City Air and provided aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.

Two Tragedies Within Blocks of Each Other

The sequence of events made Tuesday an extraordinarily deadly evening in Chatsworth.

First came the collision between an SUV and a Metro bus, which killed at least two people and injured several others.

News crews then rushed to cover that scene.

Less than two hours later, one of the helicopters hovering above the area crashed only blocks away, killing three more people.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it a “very, very tragic day in Los Angeles” as emergency crews dealt with both scenes.

For NBC4, the tragedy unfolded in an especially painful way.

Its journalists began the evening covering a fatal crash involving strangers. Before the night was over, they were reporting the deaths of two of their own colleagues.

Moreno and Marciniw went into the air Tuesday evening to document breaking news unfolding below them.

They never made it home.