What began as another breaking-news assignment over Los Angeles ended in a tragedy that has shaken a newsroom, a family, and viewers who had grown accustomed to hearing Eliana Moreno’s voice from above the city.
The 38-year-old aerial journalist was killed Tuesday evening, September 15, when the helicopter providing coverage for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 crashed in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley. Moreno was aboard the aircraft with veteran pilot George Marciniw. Both died, along with 29-year-old Edy Gutiérrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the helicopter came down. (NBC Los Angeles)
The Story Eliana Was Covering Became a Tragedy of Its Own
Moreno and Marciniw had been in the air covering a deadly collision involving a Metro bus and an SUV. Their helicopter was hovering near the scene when it suddenly went down, crashing in the area of commercial buildings and erupting in flames.
More than 70 firefighters responded to the helicopter crash, according to Reuters. Two additional people were hospitalized. Investigators have not yet established what caused the aircraft to go down, and both the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. (Reuters)
Witness Zareh Sevanesian told NBC’s Today that he saw the aircraft swaying and continuing to lose altitude. The NTSB has emphasized that the investigation remains in its preliminary stages, meaning speculation about the cause would be premature. Investigators are gathering evidence, including footage transmitted by the helicopter shortly before the crash. (NBC Boston)
The cruel coincidence was impossible to overlook: Moreno had spent years flying above Southern California to document emergencies for other people. On Tuesday night, the aircraft from which she had reported so many breaking stories became the center of one.
She Called Herself “Eli in the Heli”
For Southern California viewers, Moreno was more than a name in the credits.
Born in Orange County, she graduated from Chapman University in 2010 after studying broadcast journalism and social science. That same year, she joined the helicopter team at Angel City Air and eventually became a familiar presence in aerial reporting for several Southern California outlets, including NBC4 and Telemundo 52. (NBC Boston)
Online, she embraced the nickname “Eli in the Heli.”
Her work placed her above police pursuits, wildfires, traffic disasters and countless breaking-news scenes. Yet her social-media presence also showed how much she genuinely enjoyed the unusual job.
In one 2023 post cited by NBC, Moreno described it simply as “the best job in the world.” (NBC Boston)
Weeks before her death, she appeared in a video discussing why helicopters could provide such an important perspective during major events, particularly wildfires. From above, she explained, journalists could help viewers understand where a fire had started and where it appeared to be moving. (The US Sun)
That enthusiasm is one of the things her colleagues now remember most.
NBC4 morning anchor Lynette Romero described Moreno as someone with tremendous energy and heart, saying her enthusiasm was contagious. Romero said both Moreno and Marciniw loved breaking news and loved working aboard NewsChopper4. (People.com)
A Wedding Was Supposed to Be Ahead of Her
Away from the helicopter, Moreno had been preparing for an entirely different chapter of her life.
She was engaged to Robert Barrientos.
Moreno publicly announced their engagement in October 2025 after a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. She shared moments from the trip and showed the engagement ring Barrientos had given her. Less than a year later, colleagues speaking about Moreno after her death found themselves mentioning a future that the couple would never get to experience.
“She was engaged to be married,” Romero recalled while remembering her colleague on Today. (People.com)
The couple had continued making memories together in the months after their engagement. In May, Moreno and Barrientos completed the OC Marathon half-marathon together. NBC reported that Moreno celebrated accomplishing far more than she had initially expected of herself. (NBC Boston)
Photos from their life together also revealed another side of Moreno. She adored animals and described herself as a dog and chicken mom. Her social feeds mixed dramatic images taken high above Los Angeles with glimpses of her pets, family and relationship.
For now, however, reports claiming Barrientos has issued a public statement should be treated cautiously. NBC News reported that he had not immediately responded to its request for comment following Moreno’s death. (NBC Boston)
Her brother Johan Moreno has spoken publicly. On September 16, he warned that neither the family nor Moreno’s fiancé was collecting donations and said fundraising pages appearing online were not endorsed by them. He also shared a deeply personal farewell to his sister. (Pulptastic)
Her Pilot, George Marciniw, Was a Veteran of the Skies
The tragedy also claimed the life of George Marciniw, Moreno’s longtime pilot and colleague.
Marciniw had more than three decades of aviation experience and was also a flight instructor. He and Moreno began flying together in 2023, forming the team behind many of the aerial images viewers saw during major Southern California stories. (NBC Boston)
Marciniw frequently shared photographs from their flights, sometimes crediting Moreno for spectacular images captured above Los Angeles.
Fellow pilot Esteban Jimenez told NBC Los Angeles that Marciniw had once been his instructor and that the two had spoken only days before the crash — including about Marciniw eventually retiring. (NBC Los Angeles)
Instead, the September 15 flight became his last.
NBC4’s Newsroom Struggled to Announce the Loss
Perhaps one of the most painful moments came not from the crash scene but from inside NBC4 itself.
The people tasked with reporting the tragedy knew the victims personally.
Veteran anchor Colleen Williams became visibly emotional as she told viewers that the station had lost valued friends and colleagues while they were on assignment. The newsroom that normally reports other families’ worst moments suddenly had to report its own. (NBC Boston)
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 subsequently issued a joint statement expressing their condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of everyone killed. (NBC Los Angeles)
For Moreno’s colleagues, memories quickly moved beyond the journalist viewers knew from television. They remembered the woman behind the headset — energetic, ambitious, deeply attached to her animals, excited about her engagement and proud that she was able to report the news in the place where she grew up.
Questions About the Crash Remain
The investigation into what happened to NewsChopper4 is only beginning.
The aircraft was a Eurocopter AS350, according to the FAA. The NTSB is leading the investigation, while the FAA is also involved. Officials have not announced a definitive cause of the crash. (People.com)
That distinction matters as videos and theories continue to circulate online. Investigators now have the difficult task of reconstructing the aircraft’s final moments and determining why a routine aerial-news assignment ended with three people dead.
Until that work is completed, the central facts remain painfully simple.
Eliana Moreno was 38 years old. She had spent roughly 16 years building the career she had dreamed about, was engaged to the man she planned to marry, and was doing the work she repeatedly said she loved when her life ended.
For the people who watched her work, she was the reporter in the helicopter.
For those closest to her, she was Eliana — a daughter, sister, friend, colleague and bride-to-be whose future suddenly disappeared on an ordinary Tuesday evening above Los Angeles.
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