Chilling dashcam video captures NBC helicopter suddenly plunge from sky during live coverage

Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A dashcam video has captured the startling moment the NBC News helicopter that crashed and claimed three lives appears to drop rapidly from the sky over Los Angeles on Tuesday, September 15.

The aircraft was covering an earlier crash when it suddenly lost altitude, with the distant footage showing the chopper falling toward the area below.

The driver who recorded it said the sight was frighteningly close to home, noting that her parents regularly walk along the same streets.

Dashcam captures NBC helicopter crash

The footage, obtained by KTLA, was recorded by driver Yera Valencia as she was on the road on Tuesday.

At first, the helicopter is barely visible in the distance. Then it begins moving downward, rapidly disappearing toward the ground.

Eyewitness Valencia said she downloaded the recording from her dashcam after realizing what it had captured.

“It’s a little dot on the video. It’s a crisp video, and it just goes down,” she told KTLA.

The realization of how close the incident was appeared to hit her afterward.

“God, it’s so close, it could have happened to anyone. My parents walk down the street,” Valencia said.

The footage below provides a first ground-level view of the sudden descent, before the helicopter crashed in the Chatsworth area.

Final moments caught on audio

The NBC aircraft had been covering a collision involving an SUV and a Metro Line bus when it went down. 

Other helicopters were also operating around the area as emergency crews dealt with the earlier crash, creating a busy scene in the air and on the ground.

The helicopter was NewsChopper4, carrying NBC4 and Telemundo reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw.

Moreno had built her career around aerial reporting, including coverage of pursuits, wildfires, traffic incidents, and other major events.

Marciniw brought more than 14,000 hours of helicopter flying experience and had worked alongside Moreno since 2023.

The sudden descent was captured in cockpit audio, giving investigators a glimpse into the final moments.

A warning could be heard shortly before the helicopter began losing altitude. 

The tension inside the aircraft then appeared to rise, with one voice saying, “uh oh,” before another asked, “You can’t pull up?”

On the ground, NBC reporter Robert Kovacik was already working on the first crash when the helicopter went down.

He had been instructed by the station to head toward a large column of smoke, but did not immediately realize that the aircraft involved was the helicopter operated by his own newsroom.

That changed as Kovacik got closer to the crash site and understood that Moreno and Marciniw were aboard. He then tried to get through the emergency response area to reach his colleagues.

The crash also claimed the life of pedestrian Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was near the commercial area where the helicopter came down, authorities said.

The circumstances behind the helicopter’s sudden loss of altitude remain under investigation.