NBC aerial reporter Eliana Moreno, who died Tuesday after the network’s helicopter went down and caught fire in the Los Angeles area, had been engaged for about a year, according to newly surfaced details.
The 38-year-old journalist shared news of her engagement to Robert Barrientos in an Oct. 28, 2025 social media post, prompting an outpouring of celebration from friends and family.
Moreno, an on-air aerial reporter for NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52, was killed alongside pilot George Marciniw when the News4chopper crashed Tuesday while they were covering a fatal Metro bus crash in Chatsworth. A pedestrian on the ground was also killed.
Telemundo confirmed the deaths, as tributes quickly poured in for Moreno and Marciniw.
“Tonight, we are in mourning. We are heartbroken. We have lost two great colleagues,” Telemundo said in an online statement.
“Eliana Moreno was a wonderful human being. Her professionalism was impressive. Everyone who worked with her knew she was—without a doubt—the best airborne reporter in all of Los Angeles.”
The station said Moreno was always “on top of everything” and remembered her as a reassuring “source of comfort” to those around her.
Moreno had dreamed of becoming a TV news reporter since she was 11. She joined Angel City Air Inc., the company that operated the News4chopper, in September 2010.
Known to Instagram followers as “Eli in the Heli,” Moreno graduated from Chapman University in 2010, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science.
Before joining NBC, she worked at KCAL 9 and KCBS 2. Around 2018 or 2019, she began flying aboard NewsChopper4, reporting from above on police pursuits, brush fires, traffic incidents and other breaking news across Los Angeles.
The Tustin native’s aerial coverage of a deadly crash in Windsor Hills saw her scoop a Radio Television Digital News Association award in 2022.
She shared a heartwarming picture of herself showing off her award alongside her pal, Robert Rodriguez, who was the pilot of the helicopter she presented from.
Moreno gushed online that being an aerial journalist was “the best job in the world.”
Most of her social media content was peppered with work-related footage, but in May, she revealed she completed the Orange County half marathon in May in under two hours alongside Barrientos.
She achieved the feat after setting a New Year’s resolution to run just one mile by the end of 2026 – despite suffering from “bad asthma.”
“The first week of January, I decided to start trying to run my one mile. I did it on my first try, and even though I felt like I was going to die, I felt like I could do more,” she said.
She continued to train and managed to complete the half marathon.
“I surpassed everything I thought I could ever do so let’s see what I do next,” she said.
Just two months after Moreno announced her engagement, Marciniw posted a photo alongside Moreno in front of their work helicopter “wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays as we look forward to the start of a New Year.”
Moreno was reporting on a crash that had killed two people and injured six when the helicopter ran into difficulty and smashed into a parking lot between two warehouses, which sparked a huge blaze.
Harrowing live-stream video has surfaced online that showed the copter struggling, with whirring noises coming from the engine.
A woman, now believed to be Moreno, was heard telling the pilot to “pull” before she added, “What? You can’t pull up?”
Then the live stream footage appeared to shake seconds before the helicopter crashed.
It’s not known what caused the helicopter to crash, but veteran pilot Zoey Tur speculated there may have been an engine failure.
“If you listen, you could hear the low rotor RPM annunciator horn going off. You could also hear the engine rev down. This was an engine failure, and slow response into entering an auto -rotation by PiC. No survivors,” Tur posted after the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash.