The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has now made an official finding in the death of beloved NBC4 aerial reporter Eliana Moreno.

Moreno was killed when the news helicopter carrying her and pilot George Marciniw plunged to the ground in Chatsworth on September 15.

She was just 38 years old.

According to the New York Post, the medical examiner determined that Moreno died from blunt-force trauma.

The office also listed thermal injuries and the inhalation of combustion products as other significant conditions in her death.

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Those findings answer one painful question for Moreno’s family, colleagues and viewers. But they do not explain why the helicopter went down.

That investigation is still open, and the distinction is important. The medical examiner’s report establishes the physical injuries and fire-related conditions tied to Moreno’s death, but it does not identify the mechanical or operational failure that sent the helicopter down; that determination belongs to the federal aviation investigation, which can take months as specialists study wreckage, maintenance records, video, audio and the aircraft’s final movements.

The Post reported that Moreno was working aboard NewsChopper4 with pilot George Marciniw when the aircraft fell near the scene they had been covering. Both people aboard the helicopter were killed.

Edy Gutierrez Mejia, a 29-year-old man on the ground, also died when the aircraft came down. His cause of death was listed as blunt-force trauma to the head.

Marciniw’s official cause of death had not yet been made public when the finding for Moreno was released. Federal investigators, meanwhile, had not announced what caused the helicopter itself to fail.

Moreno and Marciniw were aboard a Eurocopter AS350 B2 operated by Angel City Air and used for coverage by NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52. They had been reporting on a deadly collision between an SUV and a Metro bus when the aircraft crashed nearby.

The collision they were covering had already killed two people before the helicopter tragedy added three more lives to the toll that evening.

The Associated Press reported that an alarm could be heard in the helicopter’s cockpit during the final seconds of the live broadcast as the aircraft began losing altitude.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said that recording could be some of the investigation’s most important evidence.

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The NTSB began examining the wreckage the day after the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration is also involved, and neither agency has announced a final cause.

The AP also reported that the helicopter moved away from the original bus-crash scene as it lost altitude. Moreno could be heard reacting to the emergency in the final moments before the broadcast ended, giving investigators a time-stamped record of what the crew saw and heard as the aircraft rapidly descended.

That distinction matters. A medical examiner determines what injuries caused a person to die, while the NTSB reconstructs the chain of events that produced those injuries; investigators can examine the aircraft’s systems, maintenance history, weather, communications and crew actions before issuing preliminary findings and, eventually, a final probable cause.

Aviation investigators have the separate job of determining what mechanical, operational, environmental or human factors caused an aircraft to crash.

Until that work is finished, any confident claim about why NewsChopper4 went down would be speculation.

What is already clear is the scale of the loss.

Moreno was a familiar voice heard over dramatic aerial footage. She spent 16 years doing one of the most demanding jobs in local television news: reporting, shooting video, following fast-moving events and explaining them from a helicopter over one of America’s largest cities.

She graduated from Chapman University in 2010 with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science, then joined Angel City Air that same year.

Her family said she had dreamed of becoming a reporter since she was 11 years old. She built that dream into a career that placed her above wildfires, police pursuits, traffic disasters and breaking-news scenes, helping viewers understand what was happening below.

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NBC Los Angeles remembered Moreno as a trusted aerial journalist whose work reached both its English- and Spanish-language audiences.

Her brother, Johan Moreno, later shared family memories of the curiosity and determination that shaped her long before viewers knew her as “Eli in the Heli.”

Moreno leaves behind five brothers and sisters, a fiancé, stepchildren and beloved dogs.

NBC reported that she was born in Orange County and graduated from Chapman University before beginning her aerial-news career. She became a fixture in the sky over Southern California while working for Angel City Air, covering wildfires, police pursuits, traffic emergencies and breaking news for viewers in two languages—a job that demanded a reporter’s judgment, a photographer’s eye and the composure to work from a moving aircraft.

The station also remembered Marciniw as a veteran pilot with more than 40 years of flying experience. He and Moreno had worked together as the NewsChopper4 team since 2023.

Colleagues described the pair as professionals who guided viewers through emergencies from above, often under enormous pressure. Their deaths left the NBC4 and Telemundo 52 newsrooms mourning two people whose work had become part of daily life in Los Angeles.

There is a cruel layer to this tragedy: Moreno died while doing the work she had wanted to do since childhood, covering another deadly accident so the public could understand it.

The medical examiner’s finding puts official words to how her life ended.

The fuller truth of who she was is in the years of work, the family she loved and the city that trusted her voice from above.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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