Haunting Footage Shows NBC4 Helicopter Drop out of Sky into LA Parking Lot — Killing 3

Newly released video shows the terrifying final seconds before a news helicopter suddenly lost altitude and crashed Tuesday night, killing its two-person crew and a man on the ground in Chatsworth.

The footage, obtained by NBCLA from a nearby building, captures the Airbus helicopter hovering over an intersection before it abruptly begins dropping toward the ground.

The helicopter had been covering a deadly crash involving an SUV and a Metro bus when it went down in the parking lot of a self-storage business.

Reporter Eliana Moreno, 38, and pilot George Marciniw were killed in the crash, along with 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground.

“With heavy hearts, the board and members of the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California join our broadcast community in mourning the loss of pilot George Marciniw and Eliana Moreno, the Golden Mike Award–winning aerial journalist known to viewers of NBC Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 — and to her many followers — as ‘Eli in the heli.’ (Read more from “Haunting Footage Shows NBC4 Helicopter Drop out of Sky into LA Parking Lot — Killing 3” HERE)