Heartbreaking moment TV reporter sees NBC helicopter crash live on air as new details are released
A reporter was live on TV when an NBC news helicopter fell from the sky, which killed two of his colleagues and an unnamed civilian.
NBC 4 journalist Robert Kovacik was covering a bus crash in Los Angeles' Chatsworth neighborhood on Tuesday (September 15) evening when the helicopter plummeted from the sky into a parking lost just a short distance away at 7pm local time.
The reporter arrived at the scene completely unaware his colleagues were involved, as firefighters asked him to vacate the scene as clouds of smoke billowed in the sky.
"We don't know where the chopper is from, we don't know if it even is a chopper, if it's a news chopper, we are just looking right now," he said.
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As people scrambled from the scene and vans from his network evacuated, the situation soon dawned on the reporter that his colleagues were in the plane, as new details were released.
"Dude that's my crew in there, that is my own crew," Kovacik pleaded with the police, as per the Mail Online.
"We are gonna get them evacuated, this isn't safe," the police officer responded.
Eliana Moreno, a photo journalist employed by NBC 4, pilot George Marciniw, and an unnamed pedestrian were killed as a result of the helicopter crash.
NBC 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.
“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."
As well as the three people who lost their lives, Fire Battalion Chief Rico A. Gross stated at a news conference that two others had been taken to hospital.
Their conditions remain unknown at this time.
NBC LA morning newscast host Lynette Romero said the network's employees were 'heartbroken' at the loss of Moreno and Marciniw.
Speaking on Wednesday's (September 16) Today show, Romero said: "They were both doing what they loved so much and for me, that’s comfort in knowing how happy they were. They loved breaking news, and they loved being in News Chopper 4."
NBC Los Angeles and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52, issued a joint statement following the crash.
“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,” the stations said.
"We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
The National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) is now trying to establish what caused the helicopter to crash.
Topics: Los Angeles, US News
Callum Jones