Who Was Eliana Moreno? Remembering the NBC4 NewsChopper4 Reporter

Southern California’s news community is mourning the loss of Eliana Moreno, the longtime NBC4 and Telemundo 52 aerial journalist known to viewers as “Eli in the Heli,” who died alongside veteran pilot George Marciniw when NewsChopper4 crashed in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles on the evening of September 15, 2026. This tribute looks at who Eliana Moreno was, the career she built covering Los Angeles from the air, what is currently known about the crash, and how her colleagues and community are remembering her. This piece will be updated as more confirmed information, including details from the ongoing federal investigation, becomes available. We approach this story with care, out of respect for everyone affected.

Table of Contents

Who Was Eliana Moreno?

Eliana Moreno was a veteran aerial photojournalist and television reporter based in Southern California, known to viewers of NBC Los Angeles and its Spanish-language sister station Telemundo 52 for her helicopter coverage of breaking news across the region. She reported from the air on wildfires, police pursuits, traffic collisions, and countless other developing stories over more than a decade in the role, becoming a familiar and trusted voice during some of Los Angeles’s biggest breaking-news moments. For many longtime viewers, hearing her voice narrate a developing story from above became a familiar and reassuring part of how they experienced local news.

Moreno was born and raised in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and graduated from Chapman University in Orange in 2010 with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. According to her own professional biography, she had wanted to become a television news reporter from a young age. Before joining Angel City Air, the helicopter charter company that operated NewsChopper4 for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, Moreno worked as a reporter and anchor for local media outlets in Orange County, reporting in both English and Spanish. Over her career, she built a broad skill set that included camera work, producing, anchoring, and editing.

Publicly, she was known online by the handle “Eli in the Heli,” a nod to her work in the skies over Southern California, where she shared glimpses of her job alongside photos of her dogs, her chickens, and her life outside of work. Colleagues say that public persona matched the person they knew off camera as well. Colleagues and viewers alike knew her not just for her professional dedication but for the warmth and hometown pride she brought to her coverage of the region she called home.

What Happened: The NewsChopper4 Crash

On the evening of Tuesday, September 15, 2026, NewsChopper4 was providing live aerial coverage of a separate, deadly collision between an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley. That earlier crash, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m., killed at least two people and injured six others, drawing multiple television news helicopters to the area as local stations covered the breaking story.

A short time later, and a short distance from the original accident, NewsChopper4 went down in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, just before 7 p.m. local time. The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed the crash resulted in a fire, and more than 70 firefighters responded to the scene. NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams confirmed the loss of contact with the crew on air that evening before the station later confirmed the aircraft had gone down.

Three people died as a result of the crash: Moreno and Marciniw aboard the helicopter, and a person on the ground who was later identified by the coroner’s office as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia. Two additional people were taken to area hospitals; their conditions were not immediately disclosed by officials. Officials had not provided a further update on their conditions as of this writing. At least four cars and two storage containers on the ground were also damaged or destroyed in the resulting fire, which fire officials said was extinguished relatively quickly.

Context: The Bus Collision NewsChopper4 Was Covering

The crash that claimed Moreno and Marciniw’s lives happened while they were covering a separate, unrelated tragedy: a collision between an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m. on September 15. That earlier crash killed at least two people and injured six others, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, and had already drawn multiple television news helicopters to the area as stations across the region covered the developing story. It was while providing that coverage, a short distance from the original accident scene, that NewsChopper4 went down, meaning the same evening produced two separate, unrelated tragedies within the same small stretch of the San Fernando Valley.

That overlap has added an additional layer of grief to an already difficult night for Los Angeles first responders and journalists alike, with emergency crews and news teams effectively managing two separate tragedies, one on the ground and one in the air, within the same few city blocks and the same narrow window of time.

The Investigation Into the Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the crash, as is standard procedure for any civil aviation accident in the United States. As of this writing, officials have not publicly established a cause, and investigators are expected to examine the wreckage, flight data, and the circumstances surrounding the aircraft’s final moments as part of a standard investigative process that typically takes months to complete.

Investigations of this kind proceed methodically rather than quickly. Standard NTSB civil aviation investigations typically involve a detailed on-site examination of the wreckage, a review of maintenance records for both the aircraft and its equipment, an analysis of any available flight-tracking and communications data, and interviews with witnesses and other pilots who were operating in the area at the time. When an NTSB preliminary report is eventually released, it typically offers only a bare-bones factual account, confirmed flight history, weather conditions, and initial wreckage observations, without drawing any conclusions about what went wrong. A cause is determined only later, once the full investigative record is complete. Preliminary reports are sometimes released within weeks of an accident, though they generally do not include a final determination of cause; a full final report, including the NTSB’s formal probable-cause finding, often takes twelve to eighteen months or longer to complete. Given that timeline, it will likely be some time before the public receives a definitive, official explanation for what caused NewsChopper4 to go down. In the meantime, NBC4 and Angel City Air are expected to cooperate fully with investigators, as is standard practice, while the families of all three victims wait for answers alongside the wider public.

Out of respect for that process, and because official findings have not yet been released, this article does not speculate on a cause and will be updated if and when investigators share confirmed findings.

About Angel City Air and NewsChopper4

Angel City Air is a Los Angeles-area helicopter charter company, a subsidiary of Welk Aviation, that has long provided electronic news gathering (ENG) helicopter services to Southern California television stations, operating out of Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. The company has supplied aerial coverage aircraft, including NewsChopper4, to NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 for years, giving the stations the ability to reach breaking news scenes, from wildfires to traffic collisions to unfolding police activity, faster than ground crews often can. Larry Welk, president of Welk Aviation, has previously described the company’s approach in industry interviews as built around trusted, reliable equipment and crews, reflecting the premium placed on dependability in a business where, as he has put it, missing a breaking story simply isn’t an option. Moreno and Marciniw were both Angel City Air employees assigned to the NewsChopper4 aircraft at the time of the crash.

Who Was George Marciniw?

George Marciniw, who was flying NewsChopper4 alongside Moreno at the time of the crash, was a veteran Southern California helicopter pilot with a long career in regional aviation, including work as a flight instructor. He had grown up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School. Marciniw and Moreno had flown together since 2023, and colleagues described the pair as a close, trusted team who regularly shared their work and their friendship on social media over the years they flew together. Marciniw’s decades of experience in Southern California’s demanding aviation environment, which requires constant coordination with other aircraft, air traffic control, and noise-abatement procedures over one of the busiest and most closely regulated airspaces in the country, made him a respected figure among the region’s small, tight-knit community of ENG helicopter pilots. His work as a flight instructor also meant he had helped train other pilots over the course of his career, extending his influence on Southern California’s aviation community well beyond his own flight hours. Colleagues who worked alongside him have described a pilot who took real pride in mentoring newer aviators, a role that, combined with his own decades of flight time, made his loss deeply felt not just at Angel City Air but across the wider Southern California helicopter community that had come to rely on his experience and judgment.

The Role and Risks of News Helicopters in Los Angeles

Electronic news gathering helicopters have been a fixture of Los Angeles television news for decades, providing live aerial coverage of everything from wildfires and high-speed pursuits to traffic collisions and major breaking news events across the sprawling Southern California region. Because so much of Los Angeles is difficult to reach quickly by ground during breaking news, stations have relied on helicopter crews like Moreno and Marciniw to deliver perspective that ground reporters simply cannot, often broadcasting live for extended periods over a single unfolding story. Los Angeles airspace is especially complex for ENG pilots to navigate, given the density of the region’s air traffic: multiple competing television stations often operate helicopters simultaneously over the same breaking story, requiring constant altitude coordination between crews. Pilots and reporters in this line of work also frequently operate under real time pressure to get a usable shot on the air quickly, a demand that, combined with variable weather and low-light evening conditions, adds to the overall complexity of the job in ways that are rarely visible to viewers watching the footage at home.

That role carries inherent risk, and Tuesday’s crash was not the first tragedy to strike a local television news helicopter crew in the United States. In 2022, a WPVI-TV news helicopter crashed in a wooded area of Burlington County, New Jersey, killing pilot Monroe Smith and photographer Christopher Dougherty as they returned from a Jersey Shore assignment. In an earlier incident, WNBC’s Chopper 4 crashed into a Brooklyn building while covering a shooting, though in that case the reporter, pilot, and a pilot trainee aboard survived. Incidents like these are relatively rare given how frequently ENG helicopters fly across major media markets, but they underscore the genuine risk aerial journalists and pilots accept as part of routine breaking-news coverage.

Tributes From Colleagues and the NBC4 Community

In the hours after the crash was confirmed, tributes to Moreno and Marciniw poured in from colleagues, viewers, and the broader Los Angeles news community. NBC4 and Telemundo 52 released a joint statement saying the stations were “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,” and extended condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who died.

Lynette Romero, a co-anchor of NBC4’s morning broadcast, spoke about her colleagues in an interview on TODAY the morning after the crash, describing the station as “heartbroken” and saying the team was “thinking of their families and their friends and their communities.” Romero also shared that Moreno came from a large family who were proud of her for reporting the news in her own hometown, and remembered her as an animal lover who kept dogs and chickens. Reflecting on the pair’s shared passion for their work, Romero said of Moreno and Marciniw: “They were both doing what they loved so much… they loved breaking news, and they loved being in NewsChopper 4.”

The Skill Set Behind Aerial Journalism

Aerial reporting is a more technically demanding role than it might appear from the outside. A photojournalist working aboard a news helicopter has to operate camera and transmission equipment while communicating clearly with both the pilot and the studio, often while the aircraft maneuvers to maintain a usable angle on a fast-moving story below. Moreno’s professional background reportedly included camera work, producing, anchoring, and editing, a combination of skills that would have served her well in a role that regularly requires making fast, independent editorial judgment calls about what to shoot and how to frame a live shot, all while airborne and under real time pressure. That breadth of experience, built over more than a decade in the field, is part of why colleagues describe her quite simply as a seasoned, trusted presence rather than simply a camera operator along for the ride. It’s a role that rarely receives public recognition on its own terms, since the finished on-air product tends to highlight the story being covered rather than the technical and editorial work happening behind the camera in real time.

Eliana Moreno’s Career Highlights

2010: Graduates from Chapman University with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science.
2010: Joins Angel City Air’s helicopter team, beginning her career as an aerial journalist covering Southern California.
Career-long: Reports for multiple Southern California news outlets across Los Angeles and Orange County before establishing herself with NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
2023: Begins flying regularly with pilot George Marciniw aboard NewsChopper4.
Ongoing: Becomes a familiar bilingual voice for aerial breaking-news coverage across both NBC4’s English-language and Telemundo 52’s Spanish-language broadcasts, reporting on wildfires, police activity, traffic collisions, and major developing stories throughout the region.

Her Personal Life

Outside of work, Moreno was known for sharing glimpses of her personal life with her followers under her “Eli in the Heli” social media handle, including her love of animals, her dogs, and her chickens. She had shared news of her engagement to Robert Barrientos on social media, a milestone her followers celebrated alongside her. Colleagues described her as someone who carried deep pride in her Southern California roots, having grown up in Orange County and built her career reporting on the region she called home.

Colleagues who knew her described a woman deeply rooted in her Southern California community: someone who grew up in Orange County, built her entire career in the region, and never lost the hometown pride that came with reporting the news in the place she called home. For many local viewers, that sense of familiarity is part of what makes a station’s aerial reporting team feel less like a distant news operation and more like a trusted neighbor keeping watch overhead during the region’s most difficult moments, whether that means a wildfire threatening homes or, as was true on this particular night, an ordinary evening commute interrupted by tragedy. That combination, of professional dedication and a genuine personal connection to the communities she covered, is part of what colleagues say made her coverage feel distinct from a purely detached, technical aerial broadcast.

Eliana Moreno’s Impact on Southern California Journalism

Bilingual aerial reporters who can move seamlessly between English and Spanish-language broadcasts, as Moreno did for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, remain relatively rare in local television news, making her a genuinely distinctive presence in the Southern California market for more than a decade. Her ability to serve both stations meant that a single flight could deliver breaking-news coverage to two entirely different audiences at once, extending the reach of Angel City Air’s aerial coverage well beyond what a single-language reporter typically could.

Beyond the technical value of that bilingual skill set, colleagues have pointed to the personal warmth Moreno brought to her work as a defining part of her reputation within the newsroom. Being visible and trusted across two major Los Angeles media brands for as long as she was speaks to a level of consistency and professionalism that took years to build, and it’s a large part of why For those who worked with her day to day, her death has resonated so strongly not just within NBC4 and Telemundo 52, but across the broader Southern California news community. Journalists at competing Los Angeles stations, some of whom had crossed paths with Moreno covering the same breaking stories from their own helicopters over the years, also shared condolences publicly, a reflection of the small, close-knit nature of the region’s ENG aviation community.

Why This Story Matters Beyond Los Angeles

Aerial journalists like Moreno play a role that is often invisible to the audiences who rely on their coverage: providing the live, real-time perspective that helps viewers understand the scale of wildfires, the path of a police pursuit, or the severity of a traffic collision as it unfolds. Her death, alongside Marciniw’s, has prompted renewed public attention to the work and risks involved in electronic news gathering by helicopter, a practice that has become a fixture of local television news in cities like Los Angeles, where traffic and breaking news are core parts of daily coverage.

How NBC4 and the Community Have Responded

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, NBC4 and Telemundo 52 dedicated significant portions of their broadcasts to remembering Moreno and Marciniw, with anchors including Colleen Williams and Lynette Romero speaking directly to viewers about their colleagues rather than simply reporting the story as breaking news. Grief inside a newsroom rarely stays behind the scenes for long. That kind of on-air tribute is a common way local newsrooms process the loss of a colleague who was also a familiar, trusted presence to viewers, and it reflects how deeply embedded aerial reporters like Moreno become in a station’s on-air identity over a long tenure. As is typical after a newsroom loses a colleague in the line of duty, additional tributes, retrospective segments, and remembrances are likely in the days and weeks following the crash, both from NBC4 and Telemundo 52 directly and from the broader Los Angeles journalism community. Readers who want to follow those developments directly should watch NBC4’s own broadcasts and website, which are likely to remain the most complete and immediate source for any memorial announcements.

How the Community Can Show Support

In the aftermath of tragedies like this one, many newsrooms and communities coordinate ways to support the families involved, whether through memorial funds, tributes on air, or other community gestures. Readers looking to learn about any official memorial funds or tribute events for Moreno, Marciniw, or Gutierrez Mejia should look to official statements from NBC4, Telemundo 52, and Angel City Air, which are the most reliable sources for confirmed information as it becomes available in the days ahead. Readers should be cautious of unofficial fundraising pages that sometimes appear after high-profile tragedies like this one, and should verify any fund’s legitimacy through an official station or family statement before contributing.

Sources and Further Reading

For the full original reporting behind this tribute, including complete statements from NBC4 and additional details as they continue to emerge, see coverage from these outlets:

Frequently Asked Questions About Eliana Moreno

Who was Eliana Moreno?

Eliana Moreno was an aerial photojournalist and reporter for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, known as “Eli in the Heli,” who covered breaking news across Southern California from NewsChopper4 for more than a decade.

How did Eliana Moreno die?

Moreno died on September 15, 2026, when NewsChopper4, the helicopter she was reporting from, crashed in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles while covering a separate traffic collision. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Who else died in the NewsChopper4 crash?

Pilot George Marciniw, who was flying the helicopter, also died in the crash. A third person, 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, was killed on the ground.

What caused the NewsChopper4 crash?

The cause has not yet been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, and official findings are expected to take time, consistent with standard aviation accident investigations.

Where did the crash happen?

The helicopter crashed in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, a short distance from an earlier, separate collision it had been covering.

What was Eliana Moreno covering when the crash happened?

She and Marciniw were providing live aerial coverage of a deadly collision between an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus that had occurred shortly before, near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue.

How long had Eliana Moreno worked as an aerial reporter?

Moreno began her career in aerial journalism in 2010 after graduating from Chapman University, and had spent more than a decade reporting from the sky over Southern California.

Who was George Marciniw?

George Marciniw was a veteran Southern California helicopter pilot and flight instructor who had flown NewsChopper4 alongside Moreno since 2023.

What outlets did Eliana Moreno work for?

Moreno most recently worked for NBC4 Los Angeles and its Spanish-language sister station Telemundo 52, as an employee of Angel City Air, the company that operated NewsChopper4.

Is there a memorial fund for Eliana Moreno’s family?

As of this writing, no official memorial fund has been widely confirmed; readers should look to official statements from NBC4, Telemundo 52, and Angel City Air for verified updates.

What was Eliana Moreno’s nickname?

She was widely known by the nickname “Eli in the Heli,” a reference to her role as an aerial reporter, which she also used as her social media handle.

Did Eliana Moreno report in Spanish as well as English?

Yes. Moreno reported for both NBC4’s English-language broadcasts and Telemundo 52’s Spanish-language broadcasts, making her one of the relatively few bilingual aerial reporters working in the Los Angeles market.

How many people died in the NewsChopper4 crash?

Three people died: Moreno and pilot George Marciniw aboard the helicopter, and Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground at the crash site.

Was anyone injured but survived the crash?

Yes. Two additional people were taken to area hospitals following the crash; their conditions were not immediately disclosed by officials.

What company operated NewsChopper4?

NewsChopper4 was operated by Angel City Air, a Los Angeles-based helicopter charter company that provided aerial news coverage services to NBC4 and Telemundo 52.

Is the cause of the crash known yet?

No. As of this writing, the NTSB and FAA have not released a determined cause, and official findings from a full investigation typically take many months to complete.

What other tragedy occurred in Chatsworth that same day?

Earlier the same evening, a separate collision between an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus occurred nearby, killing at least two people and injuring six others; NewsChopper4 was covering that incident when it crashed.

That earlier crash alone would have made for a demanding night of coverage across Los Angeles television newsrooms, even before the second, unrelated tragedy unfolded nearby.

Eliana Moreno spent more than a decade telling Southern California’s stories from above, work that rarely put her name in the headlines but that shaped how millions of viewers understood the region’s biggest moments. In the days ahead, more details about the crash that claimed her life, George Marciniw’s, and Edy Gutierrez Mejia’s will likely emerge as the NTSB and FAA complete their investigation. For now, colleagues and viewers across Los Angeles are remembering Eliana Moreno for the passion, warmth, and hometown pride she brought to her work every time NewsChopper4 took to the sky. Our thoughts remain with her family, her colleagues at NBC4 and Telemundo 52, and everyone affected by this tragedy. Browse more news and community coverage on our blog.

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