NBC reporter Eliana Moreno, who died Tuesday after the network helicopter crashed and caught fire in the Los Angeles area, had been engaged for about a year, according to reports.
The 38-year-old veteran aerial journalist publicly announced her engagement to Robert Barrientos in a social media post on Oct. 28, 2025, prompting an outpouring of congratulations from family and friends.
Moreno, who worked for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, was killed alongside pilot George Marciniw when the News4chopper went down while covering a deadly Metro bus collision in Chatsworth on Tuesday. A pedestrian on the ground also died.
Telemundo confirmed the deaths, prompting an outpouring of tributes from colleagues and viewers.
“Tonight, we are in mourning. We are heartbroken. We have lost two great colleagues,” Telemundo said in an online statement.
“Eliana Moreno was a wonderful human being. Her professionalism was impressive. Everyone who worked with her knew she was—without a doubt—the best airborne reporter in all of Los Angeles.”
The network also praised Moreno for always being “on top of everything” and called her a “source of comfort” to those around her.
Moreno had dreamed of becoming a television news reporter since she was 11. She joined Angel City Air Inc., the company operating the News4chopper, in September 2010.
Known as “Eli in the Heli” on Instagram, Moreno graduated from Chapman University in 2010 with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science.
She went on to work at KCAL 9 and KCBS 2 before joining NBC and taking to the skies aboard NewsChopper4 around 2018 or 2019. Her aerial reports primarily focused on police pursuits, brush fires and traffic incidents.
The Tustin native won a Radio Television Digital News Association award in 2022 for her aerial coverage of a deadly crash in Windsor Hills.
After receiving the honor, she shared a warm photo of herself with her friend Robert Rodriguez, the pilot of the helicopter from which she delivered the award-winning report.
Moreno often described aerial journalism as “the best job in the world.”
While much of her social media activity centered on her work, she also shared in May that she had completed the Orange County half marathon in under two hours alongside Barrientos.
She took on the challenge after making a New Year’s resolution to run just one mile by the end of 2026, despite dealing with “bad asthma.”
“The first week of January, I decided to start trying to run my one mile. I did it on my first try, and even though I felt like I was going to die, I felt like I could do more,” she said.
She continued to train and managed to complete the half marathon.
“I surpassed everything I thought I could ever do so let’s see what I do next,” she said.
Just two months after Moreno announced her engagement, Marciniw posted a photo alongside Moreno in front of their work helicopter “wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays as we look forward to the start of a New Year.”
Moreno was reporting on a crash that had killed two people and injured six when the helicopter ran into difficulty and smashed into a parking lot between two warehouses, which sparked a huge blaze.
Harrowing live-stream video has surfaced online that showed the copter struggling, with whirring noises coming from the engine.
A woman, now believed to be Moreno, was heard telling the pilot to “pull” before she added, “What? You can’t pull up?”
Then the live stream footage appeared to shake seconds before the helicopter crashed.
It’s not known what caused the helicopter to crash, but veteran pilot Zoey Tur speculated there may have been an engine failure.
“If you listen, you could hear the low rotor RPM annunciator horn going off. You could also hear the engine rev down. This was an engine failure, and slow response into entering an auto -rotation by PiC. No survivors,” Tur posted after the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash.
