NBC reporter Eliana Moreno's harrowing final words before fatal helicopter crash that killed three

Disturbing footage recorded shortly before an NBC news helicopter fell from the sky has revealed Los Angeles reporter Eliana Moreno's final words.

Moreno, a photo journalist, tragically died in the crash, alongside pilot George Marciniw and an unnamed pedestrian, after the aircraft plummeted to the ground around 7pm on Tuesday, September 15.

The NewsChopper4 had been hovering just above the scene of a fatal bus crash in the Chatsworth area of San Fernando Valley, when something appeared to go wrong with the aircraft.

Footage filmed from onboard the chopper shows the camera starting to violently shake, before the view is pulled away as the helicopter quickly loses altitude.

The same footage also captured the chilling final words of Moreno, who asked: "You can't pull up?" moments before the fatal impact.

Devastating footage recorded from the ground shows the wreckage of the aircraft, which is completely engulfed in flames as more than 50 firefighters rushed to try and battle the blaze.

At the time of the incident, the NBC4 chopper had been one of several helicopters in the area reporting on the news that an SUV had collided with a city bus, killing two people and injuring six others.

However, news quickly became centered around the devastating helicopter crash after the NBC4 anchors lost contact with the crew.

Veteran host Colleen Williams was live on air when she received the confirmation that the fallen aircraft had belonged to the station.

“We can now confirm that the chopper that went down in Chatsworth tonight, about two hours ago, was in fact news chopper four," she said emotionally.

“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."

She added: "We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it and regroup," before the coverage was abruptly cut.

A third person, who was believed to be on the ground, has also died while a fourth was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

Local police said in a statement: "We do have one confirmed patient that seemed to be outside of the helicopter when it crashed. That person was declared deceased on scene."

The National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) is now trying to establish what caused the helicopter to rapidly lose altitude and fall from the sky.