Dashcam footage recorded by a Los Angeles motorist shows an NBC and Telemundo news helicopter plunging swiftly toward the ground shortly before a devastating crash that left three people dead.
The video was captured Tuesday by driver Year Valencia as the helicopter fell from the sky while its crew covered a separate fatal crash involving an SUV and a city bus.
“I downloaded the video of my dashcam. It’s a little dot on the video. It’s a crisp video and it just goes down,” Valencia told KTLA, which first obtained the footage. “God, it’s so close, it could have happened to anyone. My parents walk down the street.”
Eliana Moreno seen in a news helicopter. (Facebook/Eliana Moreno)
The news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, killing NBC4 and Telemundo 52 reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, who was on the ground.
The aircraft came down near a storage facility and burst into flames. The fire spread to at least four vehicles and two storage containers.
A man takes photographs of the scene on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, where three people were killed when an NBC4 Los Angeles helicopter crashed and exploded in flames near the site of a triple-fatal SUV-Metro bus collision in Chatsworth on Tuesday evening. (Dean Musgrove/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
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The helicopter crash occurred about two hours after the SUV struck the city bus in a separate collision that killed two people and injured six others, authorities said. Police said the SUV was traveling in the wrong direction, ran a red light and hit another vehicle before crashing into the bus.
Police arrested the SUV driver, 36-year-old Bailee Lynn Rios, on murder charges Tuesday night. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office was reviewing the case to decide whether any charges would be filed in court.
Investigators were still working Wednesday to determine what caused the Los Angeles news helicopter crash. Footage broadcast from the aircraft before it went down captured an alarm sounding in the cabin as the helicopter began to lose altitude.
The scene on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, where three people were killed when an NBC4 Los Angeles helicopter crashed and exploded in flames near the site of a triple-fatal SUV-Metro bus collision in Chatsworth on Tuesday evening. (Dean Musgrove/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday that the helicopter’s final video could provide investigators with critical evidence as they work to determine what caused the crash. The sounds captured on the recording appeared consistent with changes in engine speed and likely cockpit advisory tones, he said.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 operated by Angel City Air, was used by NBC4 and Telemundo 52 for aerial news coverage. The NTSB is investigating the helicopter crash as well as the earlier bus collision.