It was a somber moment for NBC journalists the morning of September 16 as they mourned two of their own.
In a fatal helicopter crash the night of September 15 in Los Angeles, NBC Los Angeles anchor Eliana Moreno and NewsChopper 4 pilot George Marciniw were among the three identified victims.
“It’s a sad story this morning,” Savannah Guthrie started off saying on NBC’s TODAY, with her and co-anchor Craig Melvin covering the news of the crash on the morning news show.
According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the pair were covering a fatal bus crash in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth when their helicopter went down, taking both their lives and that of a third person, who has not yet been identified.
While George identified himself as a “news pilot” and had decades of flying experience, Eliana was the network’s bilingual reporter, covering for NBC Los Angeles as well as Telemundo 52.
“Two of the reporters were our NBC colleagues,” Savannah noted during her broadcast, and after reporting from the scene, they spoke with Lynette Romero, a co-anchor of NBC Los Angeles’ early morning broadcast, who emotionally paid tribute to her two colleagues.
© Getty Images“We are heartbroken,” she told Savannah and Craig. “You know what it’s like to be in the news business, right? We connect on such a deep level because we share our lives together, we cover tragedies and we cover triumphs. Eliana and George were a really important part of that.”
“We’re thinking of their families and their friends and their communities,” Lynette continued, saying that they were both “lifelong Angelenos,” and gushed about how proud they were to be able to report in their home city and work in breaking news.
“They were both doing what they loved so much. For me, that’s comfort in knowing how happy they were. They loved breaking news, and they loved being in NewsChopper 4.”
© Getty ImagesShe spoke to Eliana’s light and passion for her profession, calling her a “spark plug” and deeming her a very trusted reporter who worked hard to reliably cover whatever she saw from the air in both English and Spanish.
Lynette recalled a trip they took to visit NewsChopper 4 with Eliana. “She was so proud to show us her office,” she remembered. “She was so enthusiastic, you could tell how passionate she was about her job, and that made us love it even more.”
She also acknowledged that viewers were “grieving” Eliana and George as well, adding: “They lost someone who they knew very intimately. When you have that voice of a news chopper reporter in your ear, it’s a very intimate relationship.”
© Instagram“We mourn with you,” Savannah said at the end. “We know what it’s like, as you said, there’s a bond. You spend your lives together, nights and weekends under stressful circumstances. And there really is a connection that we feel with our colleagues. Our hearts are with you, our hearts are heavy too.”
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