Dashcam Video Shows Los Angeles News Helicopter Plummeting Before Fatal Crash

Dashcam video from Los Angeles driver Year Valencia captured an NBC and Telemundo news helicopter rapidly descending toward the ground moments before a fiery crash.

The helicopter crew was covering a separate deadly collision involving an SUV and a city bus. The crash killed NBC4 and Telemundo 52 reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw, and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground. The aircraft went down near a storage facility in the Chatsworth neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley, caught fire, and the blaze spread to at least four vehicles and two storage containers.

The initial SUV-bus collision killed two people and injured six others. Police arrested the SUV's driver, 36-year-old Bailee Lynn Rios, on murder charges. Video broadcast from the helicopter before it went down captured an alarm sounding inside the aircraft as it began losing altitude. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar stated that the helicopter's final video could provide critical evidence as investigators work to determine the cause of the crash. Audio from the chopper also captured a passenger asking the pilot, "What? You can’t pull up?"