Moment news anchors announce colleagues have been killed in helicopter crash live on air

A news helicopter was taking footage for reports of a fatal bus accident yesterday evening (15 September) when it crashed.

NBC4 Los Angeles went on to confirm the chopper was one of its news aircraft as the Fire Department confirmed three people had died in the crash.

As the station said those on the helicopter were ‘valued friends and colleagues’ the news anchors tearfully confirmed live on air that it was their station’s news chopper after they had ‘lost contact’ with their team.

There had been a number of news helicopters in the area at the time, with reporters on the ground watching on as they were reporting from the bus crash that left at least two dead and six other people injured.

And NBC4 Los Angeles anchor Colleen Williams went on to say that they would be taking time at the station to ‘regroup’.

Confirming that it was their aircraft in the fatal accident, she said live on air: “We can now confirm that the chopper that went down in Chatsworth tonight, about two hours ago, was in fact news chopper four.

“We’ve been telling you that we’ve been piecing it together here, we knew it was a news chopper and we knew we’d lost contact with our people out there, and we’ve just received the confirmation that in fact news chopper four went down just before seven o’clock tonight in Chatsworth.

“We’re going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process and to regroup.”

Williams assured that if ‘anything should happen’ such as a news conference or any kind of update, the station would bring the news to its audience.

The camera then appeared to cut out, giving the colleagues a moment to process the incident that involved their team.

It was later confirmed that both people on the helicopter, Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw, had died as they were described as ‘valued friends and colleagues’.

The station said the third victim was on the ground at the time of the crash but was not named.

In a joint statement, NBC 4 and Telemundo 52 said it was ‘deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident’.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives,” it added.

Fire from the helicopter crash spread to four vehicles and two storage containers with more than 70 firefighters deployed to the scene, according to the LAFD.