Reporter, news pilot and pedestrian killed during KNBC's TV coverage.

A man photographs the scene Wednesday where three people were killed when a helicopter for KNBC Channel 4 crashed and exploded near the site of a fatal SUV-Metro bus collision in Chatsworth on Tuesday evening. Dean Musgrove - staff photographer.

Reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed in a helicopter crash on an assignment in Chatsworth on Tuesday. Courtesy of KNBC Channel 4

By EMILY MCGINN, SIERRA VAN DER BRUG AND NATHANIEL PERCY | STAFF WRITERS

Three people were killed when a news helicopter went down as it was broadcasting images of a double-fatal crash involving a Metro bus in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles on Tuesday night, bursting into flames when it crashed between commercial buildings, authorities said.

Video from the helicopter as it hovered east of the bus crash, then descended and cut off upon impactwas confirmed as authentic at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, with National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge Fabian Salazar saying itwas "probably the most important evidence we have."

Reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were covering a bus crash for KNBC Channel 4 Los Angeles when the Eurocopter AS 350 B2 went down in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue, NBC officials confirmed Tuesday night, with anchor Colleen Williams becoming visibly emotional as she confirmed that the downed helicopter was NewsChopper4.

"We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it..." Williams said.

NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the crash. Salazar said Wednesday that it could be up to 30 days before a preliminary report on the crash would be available.

The cause of the crash was not known, but video aboard the helicopter captured the sound of the aircraft's motor winding down shortly before it begins its descent. "You can't pull up?" Moreno asks moments before the feed cuts out.

A pedestrian on the ground, 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, was also killed in the helicopter crash and another pedestrian was hospitalized, authorities said.

At the crash site Wednesday, Salazar said investigators did not know if the helicopter had a data recorder, but they were working with the owners and searching for one. He said the surrounding businesses had cameras and were working to secure the video.

Investigators planned to comb through the wreckage on scene on Wednesday and today before taking the wreckage to a secure facility to conduct further analysis, Salazar said.

He said the video contained "sounds consistent with the engine changing its speed" and that there were "tones generated that are likely advisories to the pilot."

Investigators were hopeful of obtaining a pristine copy of the recording so they can send it to a lab for sound analysis, he said.

Zoey Tur, a veteran helicopter pilot with 32 years of experience, most of it in TV news, said Wednesday that the sound of the helicopter heard in the video that showed it descending to the ground indicated either a mechanical issue or the pilot may have run out of fuel.

"You can hear the engine RPM decaying and then the emergency annunciator horn," Tur said by phone. "It only goes off for one of two reasons, either a low-RPM rotor or a hydraulics issue. It wasn't a hydraulic failure, you can literally hear the engine being cut, being starved of fuel."

Tur said there was at least enough fuel in the helicopter to start a fire when it crashed. And post-crash photos showed the rotor blades were "barely damaged, which shows the rotor system was not producing power when the blades hit the shipping container and then the ground."

Since the pilot was in a hover, he would have had to react almost instantly to try to put the helicopter in an auto-rotation, Tur said, which could have allowed for a more controlled glide to the ground.

Moreno and Marciniw were providing coverage of a crash between an SUV and a Metro bus, which occurred at De Soto Avenue and Nordhoff Street about 5 p.m., which left two bus passengers dead and six others injured.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department announced the driver of the SUV had been arrested on suspicion of murder after it was determined she was driving southbound in the northbound lanes of De Soto Avenue and had run a red light before plowing into the side of the bus, which was traveling eastbound along Nordhoff Street.

The area was already saturated with police officers and firefighters, but more than 70 firefighters responded to the helicopter crash, which also damaged four cars and two storage containers.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, memorials were started both outside NBC's Universal City studio and at Whiteman Airport, where the helicopter took off and was kept.

Jake Asner, creator of Traffic News L.A., organized the small memorial at WhitemanAirport on Wednesday morning, saying that he felt it was more appropriate than to do so at the crash site.

"This morning, I hadn't heard of any public memorials and I feel like a crash site is not a very respectful place to do that," Asner said. "So, I wanted to come out here to the place she loved; where her helicopter took off every morning and landed every night."

Asner first met Moreno in 2022 when he trained with her for four months on how to be an aerial journalist.

"She was so amazing," he said. "She could listen to five radios while talking to the assignment desk and flying a pursuit, tracking a car with a camera. She made it look like it was the easiest thing in the world."

George Kapoyan, a close friend of Marciniw, stood at the fence lining the runway at Whiteman Airport, looking at where the helicopter would have been parked.

He met Marciniw about 15 years ago when he wanted to learn how to fly, Kapoyan said. A mutual friend connected them.

''I'd bring my kids to the airport to see him take off," Kapoyan said, noting that for his son's fourth birthday, Marciniw took the time to show him the helicopter and how it worked.

"Just a few weeks ago, George was flying over Burbank, where I live, and I was so excited knowing it was him up there," Kapoyan continued. "Whenever I saw the Channel 4

helicopter, I'd text him and say, 'I see you up there.'"

Moreno was born and raised in Orange County and graduated from Chapman University, the KNBC report said. Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.

They began flying together in 2023.

The helicopter was operated by Angel City Air and provided news coverage for KNBC and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52, NBC said. Moreno and Marciniwwere both employees of Angel City Air.

But the KNBC news team regarded them as more, Williams said, "They were family."

''I'm absolutely devastated by the loss of life in Chatsworth tonight," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Tuesday. "My heart is with the families and loved ones of those we lost in the tragic bus collision and helicopter crash.

''I'm grateful to the city teams who responded so quickly," she said. "Please stay clear of the area as public-safety officials remain on scene.''

A news conference with Bass and other officials was held to console the community and thank first responders later Tuesday evening. At one point, officials could be seen hugging KNBC reporter Robert Kovacic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also thanked the first responders for "working tirelessly throughout the night."

"Our hearts are with the victims and families of tonight's devastating Metro bus and helicopter crashes in Chatsworth, and with the entire NBC4 family," Newsom said.

The crash was the second fatal crash involving a KNBC helicopter. On Aug. 1, 1977, a Bell 206 news helicopter piloted by Francis Gary Powers ran out of fuel and crashed into a field near Encino, killing Powers and the aircraft's only passenger, cameraman George Spears.

Powers was best known as the pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down while flying a CIA mission over the USSR in 1960. Powers was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison for espionage. He served one year, nine months of his sentence before getting released in a prisoner swap in 1962.

Salazar urged anyone who believes they have information on Tuesday's bus crash or the helicopter crash to reach out to the NTSB: atwitness@ntsb.gov

City News Service contributed to this report.