The names of news helicopter pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno will be part of a Washington, D.C. memorial honoring journalists who died while reporting news.<\/p>\n
Former Congressman David Dreier, chairman of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, made the announcement Wednesday, a day after the long-time news helicopter crew<\/a> died in a crash as they covered a deadly Metro bus collision in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth<\/a> for NBCLA and Telemundo 52.<\/p>\n “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,” Dreier said in a statement. “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.”<\/p>\n The first-of-its-kind memorial received Congressional approval in 2020 to construct the memorial using private funds on federal land at the National Mall. Organizers aim to complete the memorial between the U.S. Botanic Garden and the National Museum of the American Indian, by the end of 2028.<\/p>\n “The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation exists to ensure that those who lose their lives while reporting the news are remembered. Today, we mourn two extraordinary professionals whose work I came to know and admire,” Dreier said. “Eliana brought intelligence, energy and humanity to her work as a journalist, while George was an exceptionally skilled and dedicated pilot who made that work possible. Together, they spent countless hours above Southern California helping millions of people understand what was happening in their communities.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe family of journalist Eliana Moreno issued a statement following the deadly helicopter crash that killed her and pilot George Marciniw. This video was broadcast on the NBC4 News at 11 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2026.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n “Eliana and George devoted their professional lives to helping others see and understand the world around them. Their service will not be forgotten.”<\/p>\n Fourteen American journalists have been killed on U.S. soil since 1992, according to the foundation. More than 2,000 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992. <\/p>\n Tributes in memory of the journalist and long-time pilot, who often worked together covering wildfires, police pursuits, victory parades and more for NBCLA and Telemundo 52, have been shared in the days following the crash in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Flowers, cards and other items were left at the crash site, NewsChopper4’s home base of Whiteman Airport in Pacoima and outside the NBCLA\/Telemundo 52 studios in Universal City.<\/p>\n Moreno, 38, joined Angel City Air, which operates NewsChopper4, in 2010. She delivered aerial reports in both Spanish and English for NBCLA and Telemundo 52.Marciniw also grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974 before embarking on a decades-long career as a highly regarded pilot.<\/p>\n The helicopter crash was the second of two tragedies Tuesday in Chatsworth, where two bus passengers were killed when the bus was broad-sided by a SUV that had been traveling the wrong way at high speed.<\/p>\n Moreno and Marciniw, along with other news helicopter crews, were hovering over the intersection when NewsChopper4, owned and operated by Angel City Air, went down in a self-storage business parking lot. Moreno, Marciniw and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was visiting the city from Cuilapa, Guatemala, died at the scene.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles County medical examiner identified the bus crash victims as 46-year-old Daniel Castillo and 31-year-old Gage Weida.<\/p>\n Federal crash safety investigators arrived Wednesday at the helicopter crash site to begin their investigation. A preliminary report is expected in about 30 days with the final report taking months to complete. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The names of news helicopter pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno will be part of a Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27732,48,52,51,47,50,49,10978],"class_list":["post-467909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-chatsworth","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-washington-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}