For 16 years, Eliana Moreno built a career looking down on Los Angeles from above.
Known affectionately online as “Eli in the Heli,” the aerial journalist covered the stories unfolding across Southern California from a perspective few reporters ever experience. Wildfires, police pursuits, traffic disasters and breaking news became part of her working life, with Moreno simultaneously reporting, shooting video and helping viewers understand what was happening thousands of feet below.
On September 15, 2026, she climbed aboard a helicopter for another assignment.
She never came home.
Moreno and veteran pilot George Marciniw were killed when the NewsChopper4 aircraft crashed in Chatsworth while they were covering a deadly collision between an SUV and a Metro bus. A third person, 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, was killed on the ground. (NBC Los Angeles)
Now, footage of Moreno’s last broadcast has emerged, preserving words that sounded completely ordinary when she spoke them — but have become devastating in hindsight.
Her Final Sign-Off Was the Same One Viewers Had Heard So Many Times
There was nothing about Moreno’s final assignment that initially suggested it would be different from the countless stories she had covered before.
She and Marciniw were above Chatsworth reporting on a serious collision involving a Metro bus and an SUV.
During what became her final televised report, Moreno described the scene below before signing off in Spanish with a simple identification:
“Reportando aquí, desde el helicóptero, yo soy Eliana Moreno. Telemundo 52.”
Translated: “Reporting here from the helicopter, I’m Eliana Moreno. Telemundo 52.”
Multiple outlets have since reported that these were her final words heard during her on-air report. Only minutes later, the helicopter went down. (Todo Noticias)
There was no farewell hidden in the sentence. No indication that Moreno knew she had just completed her final broadcast.
She was simply doing her job.
And perhaps that is exactly why hearing it now is so difficult.
Then Something Went Terribly Wrong
After Moreno’s broadcast ended, footage being transmitted from the helicopter continued.
The aircraft was still above the accident scene when the situation suddenly changed.
Video captured by the helicopter has become a central piece of evidence for investigators. The footage shows the aircraft beginning to experience trouble before rapidly descending. The NTSB has said the video is among the most important evidence investigators currently possess as they work to understand what happened. (CBS News)
At this stage, investigators have not determined the cause of the crash, and officials have cautioned against drawing conclusions while the investigation remains in its preliminary phase. (CBS News)
The helicopter ultimately came down between commercial buildings in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue in Chatsworth and burst into flames. (Los Angeles Times)
Another Brief Exchange Was Captured Before Impact
Recordings from the aircraft also captured a tense exchange as the emergency unfolded.
Several outlets have reported hearing Moreno ask a question along the lines of “You can’t pull up?” as the helicopter appeared to be in trouble. (Azteca Puebla)
Those words should be treated separately from her final broadcast sign-off. The sign-off was her last report to viewers; the later exchange came during the aircraft’s final moments.
The footage is understandably disturbing, and it offers only fragments of what was happening inside the helicopter.
What it does not provide is an explanation for why the aircraft went down.
That remains the job of federal investigators.
She Had Spent 16 Years Doing the Job She Loved
Moreno’s career makes the circumstances particularly poignant.
She joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in 2010 and became a familiar presence in Southern California television news. She provided aerial reporting for both NBC4 and Telemundo 52 and was capable of reporting bilingually while also working behind the camera. (NBC Los Angeles)
Her unusual combination of skills became part of her identity.
On Instagram, she embraced the nickname “Eli in the Heli.”
Former Chapman University professor Pete Weitzner remembered Moreno as fearless and recalled that she loved being able to report, operate the camera and edit. He also noted how unusual her combination of bilingual reporting and helicopter-news skills was. (CBS News)
She had known what she wanted remarkably early.
According to CBS Los Angeles, Moreno wanted to become a reporter even while she was still in elementary school. (CBS News)
Eventually, she achieved precisely that — in her own hometown television market.
Her Life Outside the Helicopter Was Moving Forward Too
Moreno wasn’t defined solely by her career.
Her social-media biography described her as a dog and chicken mom, a Chapman University graduate — and engaged. (CBS News)
That final detail has become especially painful for those learning more about her life after the crash.
She had become engaged to Robert Barrientos in 2025 and shared joyful glimpses of the life they were building together.
There were trips, animals, celebrations and plans for a future that neither of them could have imagined would be interrupted so suddenly.
Those personal posts now sit alongside her professional footage as reminders that the woman viewers knew from the helicopter had an entirely different life waiting for her when she landed.
Her Pilot Was a Southern California Aviation Veteran
George Marciniw was much more than the person flying Moreno from one breaking story to another.
He had decades of aviation experience and was also a flight instructor who trained other pilots. Friends and colleagues remembered him as an enormously respected figure in the Southern California aviation community. (NBC Los Angeles)
Fellow pilot Esteban Jimenez told NBC Los Angeles that he had known Marciniw since the 1990s and had even been trained by him.
Only two days before the crash, the men had spoken about aviation and Marciniw’s eventual retirement. (NBC Los Angeles)
Moreno and Marciniw had worked together for roughly three years, according to CBS Los Angeles. (CBS News)
Their colleagues knew them as a team.
On Tuesday night, they flew together for the final time.
The Tragedy Extended Beyond the Helicopter
The crash also claimed the life of someone who had nothing to do with the news assignment.
Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, was on the ground when the helicopter crashed into the commercial area. He was identified by the coroner’s office the following day. (NBC Los Angeles)
The disaster therefore left three families mourning three people whose lives intersected unexpectedly in the same terrible moment.
It also devastated Los Angeles’ television-news community.
News helicopters have been an especially important part of Southern California journalism for decades. Los Angeles pioneered airborne television reporting in the late 1950s, and helicopters subsequently became a defining feature of the city’s coverage of wildfires, traffic, pursuits and breaking news. (AP News)
Moreno and Marciniw belonged to that tradition.
Their deaths have made its risks painfully visible.
A Memorial Appeared Where Their Working Days Usually Began
By the following day, a memorial had begun forming near the helipad at Whiteman Airport where NewsChopper4 regularly departed.
Flowers and tributes replaced the familiar sight of the crew preparing for another assignment. (Los Angeles Times)
Colleagues described Moreno and Marciniw as Southern California’s “eyes and ears in the sky.”
The phrase feels particularly fitting for Moreno.
For years, viewers heard her voice while looking at the city through her camera.
They rarely saw everything happening behind that picture — the reporter concentrating inside the aircraft, communicating with a pilot and preparing to tell another story.
Now people are seeing more of the woman behind that familiar voice.
Her Last Report Wasn’t Meant to Be a Goodbye
There is a natural temptation after a sudden death to search a person’s final words for some hidden meaning.
But Moreno’s last televised message is heartbreaking precisely because there wasn’t one.
She didn’t know she was signing off for the last time.
“Reporting here from the helicopter, I’m Eliana Moreno. Telemundo 52.” (Todo Noticias)
It was professional. Familiar. Routine.
It was the kind of sentence she had probably expected to say many more times.
The NTSB investigation will eventually try to answer the technical questions surrounding the crash. Investigators will examine the aircraft, video and other evidence to determine why an ordinary evening assignment ended in catastrophe. (CBS News)
But Moreno’s final broadcast leaves behind something entirely different.
It captures her exactly where thousands of Southern California viewers knew her best: above Los Angeles, calmly reporting the news.
And when she identified herself one last time — “I’m Eliana Moreno” — neither she nor the people watching could have known how painfully permanent that sign-off was about to become.
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