NBC4 chopper’s final moments: a blaring alarm, loss of altitude and panic. Why did it crash?, tell me about this news in (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-17/nbc4-chopper-why-did-it-crash)
17-09-2026
Here is a summary of the reporting from the Los Angeles Times regarding the crash of the NBC4 news helicopter:
The IncidentOn Tuesday evening, September 15, 2026, KNBC-TV’s NewsChopper4 was airborne over the Chatsworth neighborhood in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. It was providing live aerial coverage of an earlier fatal collision involving a Metro bus and an SUV. Shortly before 7:00 p.m., the helicopter abruptly lost control and crashed into a commercial driveway/parking area between two warehouse buildings on Mason Avenue, striking cargo containers and vehicles and bursting into flames.
Three people were killed:
Eliana Moreno, a veteran airborne traffic reporter and news voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 (employed by Angel City Air).
George Marciniw, the experienced pilot of the aircraft (also employed by Angel City Air).
A third victim, a person on the ground in the commercial lot who was struck during the crash.
According to audio and video recordings captured right before the crash, the aircraft experienced sudden, catastrophic trouble:
The camera footage abruptly began shaking violently as the aircraft lost altitude.
A blaring warning horn/alarm sounded inside the cockpit.
In the final panic-filled seconds, audio captures reporter Eliana Moreno urgently asking the pilot: “You can’t pull up?”
Moments later, the aircraft plunged into the ground, completely destroyed upon impact.
Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are leading the inquiry into what caused the tragedy. Key focus areas highlighted in the report include:
Flight Altitude & Hovering Profile: Investigators and aviation experts note that news helicopters often operate at low altitudes and slow hover speeds to maintain steady camera shots. If an aircraft loses engine power or suffers aerodynamic failure in that low-and-slow envelope, there is minimal time or altitude to execute an emergency autorotation (gliding landing).
Mechanical & Rotor Malfunctions: The blaring horn heard in the cockpit often corresponds to critical warnings, such as a low rotor RPM warning (loss of rotor blade speed) or an engine failure alarm. Investigators are inspecting wreckage componentsincluding the engine, rotor assemblies, and maintenance logsto identify whether a sudden mechanical failure left the pilot unable to maintain lift.
Flight Data & Environmental Factors: NTSB investigators are analyzing available ADS-B tracking data, onboard avionics remnants, weather conditions, and communication logs with air traffic control to reconstruct the aircraft’s exact control inputs and trajectory during its sudden descent.
A preliminary NTSB accident report is typically published within 15 to 30 days of the crash, while the full investigation determining the probable cause is expected to take 12 to 24 months.