A fiery crash in the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, drew the assignment of Robert Kovacik, an anchor and general assignment reporter for NBC4 Los Angeles — and by the end of the night he was reporting the deaths of his own colleagues and grieving them on camera. Black smoke caught his eye while he was covering the bus collision, and he made his way toward it.
Nobody yet knew which station the aircraft belonged to when he delivered his first live report. “I just saw a colleague of mine from ABC in tears and concern,” Kovacik said. “We don’t know where the chopper is from. We don’t know if it even is a chopper. We don’t know if it is a news chopper.”
Addressing the anchors in the studio, Kovacik said: “You think about it ladies, as we deal with this day of dueling tragedies here in Chatsworth, we were just getting ready to come on air for the NBC 4 news at 7:00 tonight and we were there.”
He continued: “Colleen and Carolyn, we are surrounded by this community … members of the media and colleagues from across Southern California, as well as the LAFD and the LAPD and members of the city all coming together tonight.” Signing off with glassy eyes, he said, “In Chatsworth, I’m Robert Kovacik. Let’s go back to you.”
Video from the scene caught Kovacik wiping tears from his eyes, then sitting inside a police car with an officer a short distance from the wreck. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass gave him a hug there, and fire officials, other politicians and fellow journalists embraced him as well. Kovacik has anchored and reported at the station for more than two decades and is a past president of the Los Angeles Press Club.
NBC4 anchors and reporters held the air for two hours, telling viewers the station had lost contact with its own crew. The aircraft down in Chatsworth was NewsChopper4, anchors Colleen Williams and Carolyn Johnson confirmed at 9 p.m.
“We are coming on the air with heavy hearts tonight because we lost valued friends and colleagues … while on assignment tonight,” Williams said. She added, “We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it.” Williams’ voice was unsteady. The broadcast then ended, and coverage resumed about 9:40 p.m.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 said in a joint statement: “We are deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.” The stations added, “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
The helicopter was providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 when it came down shortly before 7 p.m. on Sept. 15, about 1.5 miles from the scene of the bus crash, and burst into flames. Three people were killed: reporter Eliana Moreno, 38, and pilot George Marciniw, 70, along with Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, a pedestrian on the ground.
The Los Angeles Fire Department and NBC Los Angeles ground video place the crash in a parking lot near a self-storage facility in Chatsworth. The Los Angeles Times account places the crash between two commercial buildings. The fire department said a fourth person was taken to a hospital. Gutierrez Mejia died in a parking lot, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Angel City Air operated the helicopter, and NBC Los Angeles identified Moreno and Marciniw as employees of the company, describing Moreno as an aerial photojournalist for the station and its Spanish-language sister station Telemundo 52. Other accounts describe her as a reporter.
What Investigators Have Found
A live broadcast recording from the helicopter has become the investigation’s most critical evidence so far. The footage shows an aerial view of the bus crash the crew had been covering and then “the sound of the engine’s motor winds down and a horn blares, possibly warning the pilot that the main rotor speed had dropped too low or the helicopter had lost hydraulics.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration. On Sept. 16, investigator-in-charge Fabian Salazar opened an on-scene examination of the Airbus AS350 B2. Salazar said officials are searching through the wreckage and combing through maintenance logbooks, security footage, weather reports and witness interviews, and reviewing the pilot’s training, to determine what went wrong. No flight data recorder was aboard the aircraft, so the agency’s recorder laboratory will run a sound spectrum analysis on the streaming video — material Salazar described as probably the most important piece of evidence recovered so far.
The stream picked up engine noise and then a warning horn. In the seconds before the crash, Moreno was heard saying “uh-oh” and then “You can’t pull up?”
Zoey Tur, a veteran Los Angeles news helicopter pilot, heard an engine winding down on the recording, then the horn that warns of low rotor RPM.
A preliminary report is expected in about 30 days. The cause has not been determined, and investigators have not stated a cause.
Not Guilty Plea in Bus Crash
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, the Simi Valley woman accused of driving the SUV that struck a Metro bus, pleaded not guilty on Sept. 24 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in San Fernando. She faces two counts of second-degree murder, felony DUI causing injury and misdemeanor reckless driving.
The SUV struck the bus about 5 p.m. Sept. 15 at De Soto Avenue. Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, died in that crash, two hours before the helicopter came down.
Her 2004 Ford Expedition allegedly went the wrong way down a busy road, ran a red light and struck a vehicle before hitting the bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others, police said. Rios was also driving at a high rate of speed in the wrong direction, police said, before she ran the red light at Nordhoff Street and struck the bus. One passenger was fully ejected from the bus, and another was partially ejected.
Her SUV ran a red light and hit the Metro bus on Sept. 15 while she was driving under the influence of drugs, prosecutors allege. Toxicology tests showed drugs in Rios’ system, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said. Law enforcement sources also said suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were found in her vehicle.
Murder charges followed: police announced on Sept. 16 that Rios had been arrested and taken into custody the night of Sept. 15. She is being held at a Los Angeles jail, and bail was set at $4.1 million. She remained in custody in lieu of $4.1 million bail as of Sept. 26, and a court date of Nov. 2 awaits her, with a preliminary hearing date expected to be set then.
Her arraignment was first set for Sept. 18 but was postponed after she was brought to court by ambulance and later wheeled in on a gurney. Her attorneys said she was medically unable to participate, and she entered no plea. The arraignment was postponed again the following day and a third time on Monday, Sept. 21.
Cindy Rios, Rios’ mother, said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn since the arrest and had not been contacted by police. Rios is a 2008 Simi Valley High School graduate with previous drug-related arrests and convictions in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties.
A Memorial in Chatsworth
Family, friends and public officials gathered on Thursday, Sept. 17, at St. John Eudes Parish in Chatsworth. A choir sang, and portraits of all five victims stood among the flowers and candles.
Autumn Raiff, Weida’s partner, said at the Sept. 17 gathering, “He was one in a million.” She added: “He deserved so much better. We were planning so much for our lives.”
Moreno grew up in Orange County and earned a degree in broadcast journalism and political science from Chapman University in 2010. She joined the aerial production company Angel City Air that same year and reported for several Southern California outlets, becoming a familiar voice during NBC4 and Telemundo 52 aerial coverage. She had been engaged for less than a year.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974. He flew for decades, later as a flight instructor. He and Moreno had flown together since 2023 and logged hundreds of hours in the air as a team. Gutierrez Mejia was from Guatemala, that country’s consulate confirmed.
Lynette Romero, co-anchor of NBC4’s morning newscast, spoke about Moreno and Marciniw on “TODAY” the next morning. “They were both doing what they loved so much, and for me, that’s comfort in knowing how happy they were,” Romero said. “They loved breaking news, and they loved being in NewsChopper4.”