Dashcam footage from a Los Angeles driver shows an NBC and Telemundo news helicopter plunging toward the ground shortly before it erupted in flames, killing three people.
Driver Year Valencia recorded the helicopter’s rapid descent Tuesday as its crew covered a separate deadly crash involving an SUV and a city bus.
“I downloaded the video of my dashcam. It’s a little dot on the video. It’s a crisp video, and it just goes down,” Valencia told KTLA, which first obtained the footage. “God, it’s so close, it could have happened to anyone. My parents walk down the street.”
Eliana Moreno pictured in a news helicopter. (Facebook/Eliana Moreno)
The helicopter crashed in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, killing NBC4 and Telemundo 52 reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground.
The aircraft came down near a storage facility and caught fire. The flames spread to at least four vehicles and two storage containers.
A man photographs the scene on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, after three people were killed when an NBC4 Los Angeles helicopter crashed and burst into flames near the site of a triple-fatal SUV-Metro bus collision in Chatsworth Tuesday evening. (Dean Musgrove/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Authorities said the helicopter crash occurred about two hours after an SUV struck a city bus in a separate collision that killed two people and injured six others. Police said the SUV was traveling the wrong way, ran a red light and hit another vehicle before crashing into the bus.
Police arrested the SUV driver, 36-year-old Bailee Lynn Rios, on murder charges Tuesday night. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office was reviewing the case to determine what charges, if any, would be filed in court.
The cause of the helicopter crash remained under investigation Wednesday. Video broadcast from the aircraft before the crash captured an alarm sounding as the helicopter began losing altitude.
The crash scene on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, where three people were killed after an NBC4 Los Angeles helicopter crashed and exploded in flames near the site of a triple-fatal SUV-Metro bus collision in Chatsworth Tuesday evening. (Dean Musgrove/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday that the helicopter’s final video could offer critical evidence as investigators work to determine the cause of the crash. He said the sounds recorded in the footage appeared consistent with changes in engine speed and likely cockpit advisory tones.
Angel City Air operated the Eurocopter AS350, which NBC4 and Telemundo 52 used for aerial news coverage. The NTSB is investigating both the helicopter crash and the earlier bus collision.
