A witness has shared unsettling details about an NBC helicopter just before it dropped suddenly and crashed into a parking lot in Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of both the pilot and the journalist onboard, as well as a pedestrian on the ground.
“Something didn’t look right,” Zareh Sevanesian mentioned to NBC4 after the tragic accident that occurred on Tuesday evening in Chatsworth. He recalled telling his wife that the helicopter seemed off-balance. “It was swaying and then, unexpectedly, it began losing altitude, getting lower and lower,” he said.
Sevanesian lost sight of the NewsChopper4 as it disappeared behind buildings, soon after seeing a large cloud of smoke and flames erupting from the parking lot of a storage facility. “It was just this huge puff of smoke and fire,” he described. “It was so intense and hot that I couldn’t get close.”
The helicopter went down just before 7 p.m., leading to the deaths of pilot George Marciniw and NBC4 reporter Eliana Moreno. Tragically, a 19-year-old pedestrian named Edy Gutierrez Mejia also perished. A relative of Mejia, who spoke with Telemundo 52, mentioned that they were visiting from Guatemala.
The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that three people died in the crash, which also left a fourth individual hospitalized. Marciniw and Moreno had been heading to cover a previous accident involving a Metro bus and an SUV that resulted in at least two fatalities earlier that afternoon.
The helicopter took off from a nearby airport around 5:20 p.m., approximately 20 minutes after the initial bus crash was reported. The signal was lost shortly before 7 p.m. A livestream from the helicopter captured some alarming moments, including a warning horn that sounded as it appeared to struggle in the sky.
Moments captured in the livestream included Moreno exclaiming “Uh, oh” upon hearing the alarm. The helicopter’s low rotor RPM indicator was blaring for several seconds before it began to descend rapidly. Moreno was heard asking, “Pull… you can’t pull up?” just before the footage cut off amid violent shaking.
The crash triggered a severe fire that engulfed four vehicles, prompting nearby residents to flee and seek cover from the debris. Sevanesian described the scene, noting it was one of the most violent fires he had ever witnessed, recalling the screams of those who were present.
In a somber announcement, NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams expressed the station’s grief, stating, “We are coming on the air with heavy hearts tonight because we lost valued friends and colleagues just before 7 p.m.” NBC4 and Telemundo 52 expressed their deep sorrow over the incident, extending condolences to the victims’ families, friends, and colleagues.
Investigators are currently looking into what caused the tragic crash.
