Los Angeles: A helicopter used by NBC and Telemundo crashed and caught fire in a Los Angeles neighbourhood on Tuesday, killing at least three people as television crews covered an earlier collision involving an SUV and a city bus, authorities and the broadcaster said, AP reported.
The aircraft came down near a large storage complex in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley. Two people aboard the helicopter died, while at least one person on the ground was also killed, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson said.
Colleen Williams, an anchor with NBC4 Los Angeles, confirmed the deaths during a live broadcast. “We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it,” Williams said, her voice trembling. The station then briefly ended its coverage.
Officials had not immediately determined what caused the helicopter to crash.
The aircraft was covering the earlier bus collision when it went down. In that incident, an SUV struck the middle section of a city bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others. Images circulated online showed a large part of the SUV embedded in the side of the bus.
The helicopter fire spread to at least four vehicles and two storage containers, officials said. Firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik, who was at the bus crash site, said he saw thick black smoke before making his way to the helicopter crash scene.
A large police presence surrounded the area as ambulances arrived. Two people were taken to a hospital, Battalion Chief Rico A. Gross said. Their conditions were not immediately known.
Station Names Victims
NBC4 and its website identified the two people killed aboard the helicopter as Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw. Both worked for Angel City Air, the company that operated the aircraft.
Moreno, who was born in Orange County, joined Angel City Air’s helicopter team in 2010, the year she graduated from Chapman University with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. She had previously worked for several Southern California news organisations and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, according to NBC4.
Marciniw was raised in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
The station paid tribute to Moreno and Marciniw as “the team in the sky”. A broadcast featured Moreno’s social-media videos, in which she expressed wonder at the aerial views from her work.
Tributes Follow Crash
Pilot Esteban Jimenez said he had known Marciniw since the 1990s and that Marciniw had trained him.
“I just talked to him on Sunday. We were talking about the aviation business and retiring,” he said.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said they were “deeply saddened” and offered “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
“Losing five Angelenos is very painful,” Mayor Karen Bass said. “And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time.”
The NTSB and FAA said investigators would arrive Wednesday to examine the cause of the helicopter crash.