NBC helicopter crash: Reporter Eliana's fiance reveals their plan to grow old together

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A week after Eliana Moreno was killed in the NBC helicopter crash, her fiance Robert Barrientos has opened up about the woman behind the television screens. 

In a tribute shared on Instagram on Tuesday, September 22, he remembered Moreno’s love for aerial journalism, her playful personality, her two dogs and the quieter future they had planned together.

Robert Barrientos shares the life they had planned

Moreno’s career kept her in the air, but Barrientos’ tribute showed the parts of her life that viewers rarely saw.

He recalled how passionate she was about aerial reporting and said he would sometimes joke with her when she left for work, telling her she was heading to “her favorite place.”

The couple had already begun imagining what would come after those working years.

Barrientos said they planned to eventually move to Tennessee, where they wanted to have land and care for animals.

It was a future built around a slower pace and more time together.

Moreno was also devoted to their dogs, Penrose and Fullerton. Barrientos said she loved them “more than anything in this world.”

He remembered her as loving, kind, compassionate, giving and intelligent, but also highlighted the side of Moreno that made their relationship personal: she was “extremely silly” and had what he described as a great sense of humor.

Known as “Eli in the heli,” Moreno had made aerial reporting a defining part of her career.

She had worked in aerial journalism since 2010 after graduating from Chapman University.

What happened in the NBC helicopter crash

Moreno was working on September 15 when the NewsChopper 4 helicopter carrying her and pilot George Marciniw crashed in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

The crew was in the area covering a separate collision involving a Metro bus and an SUV when the helicopter went down shortly before 7 pm Moreno and Marciniw died in the crash.

Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground, was also killed.

Moreno and Marciniw had regularly worked together in the air since 2023.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined that Moreno died from blunt force trauma, thermal injuries, and inhalation of products of combustion. 

Marciniw died from blunt force trauma, while Gutierrez Mejia died from blunt head trauma.

The medical examiner’s findings establish the fatal injuries suffered by the victims. They do not establish what caused the helicopter to go down, which remains under investigation.