‘Our hearts are broken’: L.A. news stations mourn journalist, pilot killed in helicopter crash

The scene in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, on Tuesday was already tragic. An SUV had crashed into a Metro bus, killing two people.

But then it got worse. A news helicopter covering the accident plummeted to the ground, killing NBC4 aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground.

The helicopter, operated by Angel City Air and providing news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52, crashed and burst into flames around 7 p.m. Pacific time. Investigators are still trying to figure out the cause.

The Los Angeles Times’ Iris Kwok, Terry Castleman, Karen Garcia and Richard Winton reported, “Moreno and Marciniw’s last moments tragically were captured on a live broadcast. Video from their helicopter shows an aerial view of the bus crash, with the sound of the helicopter in the background. Then, the sound of the engine’s motor winds down, the angle of the camera begins to descend, and Moreno is heard saying ‘You can’t pull up?’ before the image cuts out.”

Zoey Tur, a veteran news helicopter pilot who operated the type of helicopter the NBC4 crew was flying, told the Times that the craft is equipped with “an emergency horn that sounds when either there’s a low RPM issue or the helicopter loses hydraulics.”

Tur told the Times, “If you listen carefully to the on board transmission, the microphone picks up the engine shutting down. First, the engine starts winding down, which in turn reduces power to the rotor blades. Then you hear the horn warning of low rotor RPM. You can even hear the blade slap slow down.”

Tur said that the aircraft likely didn’t run out of fuel because it caught on fire after hitting the ground.

While on the air, NBC4 news anchor Colleen Williams told viewers, “We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process, and to regroup.”

The Times wrote, “When NBC4 resumed its live coverage around 9:40 p.m., anchor Williams said the news station’s helicopter team had been out covering the bus crash. ‘We’re getting ready to go on the air with that ... and we see this large plume of smoke, and realize something else has happened. Just a couple blocks away, our helicopter went down, it crashed.’”

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 said in a statement late Tuesday, “We are deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”

David Dreier, who chairs the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, said in a statement, “The tragic deaths of the KNBC reporting team of Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw in a helicopter crash yesterday is a devastating loss for local journalism in Southern California. It is a painful reminder that gathering the news can carry very real risks. Eliana and George lost their lives while doing what they had done so many times before, going toward a breaking story so that the public could be informed. The work of journalism depends not only on the reporters whose voices and bylines we know, but also on the photographers, pilots, technicians and many others who make newsgathering possible.”

In a separate story for the Los Angeles Times, Karen Garcia, Iris Kwok, Terry Castleman and Meg James wrote, “Moreno graduated from Chapman University with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. She’d been flying in news choppers since 2010. Marciniw, her helicopter pilot, grew up in Southern California, graduating from Burbank High School in 1974.”

Anchor Annabelle Sedano said of Moreno on the air, “Here at NBC4, our hearts are broken. … She was impressive, with a great knowledge of the inner workings of law enforcement. … On the anchor desk, we knew we could ask her anything.”

About Marciniw, Sedano said, “He loved his job and often said he loved working with Eliana.”

NBC News’ Adela Suliman and Alicia Victoria Lozano had this: “What to know about the victims of the NBC Los Angeles news helicopter crash.”

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Helicopter coverage

Using helicopters to cover news stories is a pretty common practice all across the country, but especially in Southern California.

CNN’s Karina Tsui and Andy Rose wrote, “The fatal accident shook the media community in a city where extensive and competitive aerial coverage of news stories is a ubiquitous part of the local TV landscape. The news helicopter was invented by an L.A. station, when KTLA debuted its ‘Telecopter’ in 1958. The first live helicopter pursuit of a car chase followed in 1992, according to Los Angeles Magazine, as coverage of a fleeing suspect proved so popular, viewers called to complain when a station went back to regular programming.”

Tsui and Rose added, “By the time O.J. Simpson was spotted from the air in 1994, fleeing the police trying to serve him with arrest warrants for murder, L.A. stations had extensive experience with such chases — and the local media curiosity became a worldwide phenomenon. Getting such shots often requires helicopters to squeeze into relatively tight airspace, adding to the risk.”

Writing about the crash, The New York Times’ Shawn Hubler wrote, “The helicopter was just one of a fleet that zips over Southern California’s vastness, tracking events like car chases and wildfires. Most of them are supplied by contractors who provide aircraft and reporters to news stations. The choppers, swashbuckling and loud, are a signature of the region, indispensable in a metropolis encompassing thousands of square miles.”

Hubler added, “But the crash on Tuesday night of an aircraft trying to cover a spectacular collision underscored another aspect of Los Angeles’s aerial news culture: the risks. Helicopter crews across the United States say they must remain on constant lookout for hazards such as drones and bird strikes, as well as pilot error and mechanical failure.”

Hubler also included this: “Since 2000, there have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the United States, killing 16 people, federal accident records and news accounts show.”

‘60 Minutes’ lands a big interview

“60 Minutes” and new correspondent Ross Douthat have landed a big interview for the program’s second show of the season. On Sunday, Douthat will interview Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, who killed their three children (ages 5, 3 and eight months) in January 2023. Her attorneys argued she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

Lindsay Clancy’s criminal trial in Massachusetts ended in a mistrial earlier this month after one juror refused to find her not guilty by reason of insanity. This will be Patrick Clancy’s first interview since the mistrial. He and Lindsay divorced in February 2024. He has since remarried.

This will be Douthat’s first feature for the program. A longtime opinion columnist at The New York Times, Douthat was hired by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss for the iconic newsmagazine show despite having no TV news experience.

Here’s a brief promo of the segment.

Massive changes at the AJC

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced some big changes on Wednesday. In a note to staff, Paul Curran, president and publisher, said the news outlet was eliminating the following positions:

• Chief financial and strategy officer (Sharmi Gandhi)
• Chief marketing officer (Amie Green)
• Chief operating officer (Erin Malone)
• Head of content development and production (Samantha Stamler)
• Head of people (Lindsey Robbins)

Curran wrote, “These decisions were not made lightly. Most importantly, they are not a reflection of any individual’s performance, commitment or contributions. … These changes are a first step toward defining a more simplified model for the AJC — one that continues to sharpen our focus on content, products and revenue growth while also aligning with the business realities facing the media industry and local news.”

Addressing what the changes mean for employees, Curran wrote, “I know this is difficult news, especially given how closely many of you work with these talented leaders. We will move through this transition with care, respect and as much clarity as we can provide as decisions are made. What is not changing is our commitment to producing great journalism, serving our communities and building a stronger digital future for the AJC.”

Big bucks for Buck

 

Some argue that no one tunes into sporting events on television because of the announcers. But there’s no question that really good announcers give certain games a big-game feel. And, evidently, ESPN would agree with that sentiment.

Put it this way: If you turn on a game and hear Joe Buck, you know it’s a big game.

Perhaps that is why ESPN has signed the “Monday Night Football” play-by-play announcer to a new contract worth more than $100 million. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand broke the story of the extension that will keep Buck at ESPN into the next decade.

Buck has established himself as arguably the best play-by-play announcer in sports. The son of legendary broadcaster Jack Buck, Joe Buck is only 57 but has already had a jam-packed career. While at Fox Sports, he called 24 World Series — more than any other play-by-play announcer in network TV history. He has also called six Super Bowls. And he will call his seventh when ESPN hosts this season’s game next February. In addition, his contract extension means he is scheduled to call another Super Bowl the next time ESPN airs the big game in 2031.

Buck and broadcast partner Troy Aikman left Fox Sports for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” in 2022. At the time, ESPN signed the pair to five-year deals worth a combined $165 million.

Marchand reported, “Buck’s yearly salary will rise from $15 million to around $18 million annually, according to the sources. He is in the final season of his current five-year, $75 million deal.”

Aikman remains unsigned and is in the final year of a five-year, $90 million contract. Buck and Aikman have been broadcast partners for 25 years.

Media tidbits

• The New York Times’ Callie Holtermann (with visuals by Lexi Parra) writes about NBC News’ Steve Kornacki in “Can a Broadcast Personality Become a Livestreaming Star?”
• Media Matters’ Harrison Ray (with research from Rob Savillo) with “Only 3 of 113 Fox News segments about ICE actions mentioned that the majority of immigrants being arrested have no criminal record.”
• Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein with “DOJ seeking reporter’s LinkedIn records in secretive First Amendment court fight.”
• The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin with “Outkick Moves Past Its Clay Travis Era.” Mullin reported this nugget in his story: “Outkick is expected to announce the hiring of Matt Calkins, a longtime sports columnist who quit The Seattle Times when the newspaper refused to publish a column he wrote about transgender athletes. In it, he argued that supporting a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports did not automatically make a person transphobic.”
• Speaking of that, here’s Mediaite’s Sean James with “OutKick Hires Columnist Who Quit Seattle Paper Over Spiked Sophie Cunningham Article.”
• Annie Dillard, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” died on Tuesday. She was 81. Here’s more about Dillard and her career in The New York Times from Daniel Lewis.
• Louis Jacobson of Poynter’s PolitiFact with “Fact-checking Trump’s claim that GOP midterm convention audience beat the NFL.”

Hot type

• The Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Sayre with “Lost in Margaritaville: The Messy Drama Over Jimmy Buffett’s $275 Million Trust.”
• Here’s a wonderfully written column by The Washington Post’s Monica Hesse: “What the Sydney Sweeney nudity controversy is really about.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

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