The full weight of the Chatsworth helicopter tragedy has continued to emerge in the days since the crash.
Five people lost their lives on September 15, including NBC4 reporter Eliana Moreno, veteran pilot George Marciniw, and 29-year-old Edy Fernando Gutiérrez Mejía, a visitor from Guatemala.
For Gutiérrez Mejía’s family, the tragedy is especially difficult to comprehend. He had arrived in Los Angeles only hours before the crash, reportedly planning a short trip connected to his work.
For Marciniw’s longtime friend and fellow pilot Esteban Jimenez, another detail has proved almost impossible to process: just two days before the crash, the two men had been talking about the aviation business – and retirement.
The third victim had only just arrived
Gutiérrez Mejía, 29, was from Cuilapa in Guatemala’s Santa Rosa department. According to his relatives, he had traveled to Los Angeles for work and expected to stay for only about two days.
He was reportedly planning to purchase vehicles and arrange shipments of cars, clothing and spare parts back to Guatemala.
Instead, he became the third person killed when the news helicopter came down near Mason Avenue and Nordhoff Street in Chatsworth.
Two other Guatemalan nationals traveling with him — described as a cousin and a friend — survived the crash but were injured and taken to the hospital.
For his family back home, the speed at which everything changed has been devastating.
Aura Estrada, identified as an aunt of Gutiérrez Mejía’s partner, described the family as being “in disbelief.”
“Seeing him in the morning and then at night, the news that he was dead,” she told Univision.
Gutiérrez had been seen alive that same morning. By that evening, his loved ones were learning that he was gone.
Remembered his personality
Those closest to Gutiérrez Mejía say there was much more to him than his work.
His relatives remembered him as someone who loved being around people, enjoyed community events and was always ready with a joke.
“He was very playful, he liked to tell jokes and make people laugh,” his family told KMEX in Spanish.
A cousin, Karla Padilla, remembered him as a man “full of life, with a great desire to live.”
Another friend, Daniel Castillo, described him as “a cheerful person, someone who was always there for those who needed him.”
“He was always a dynamic, hardworking young man, and today we sadly woke up to the sad news of his passing in this accident that occurred in the US,” Castillo said.
Back in Cuilapa, his death has also been mourned by the local community. The municipality shared condolences for the young man, who was known by the nickname “Pichi.”
His relatives have since launched a fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses and the cost of bringing his body home to Guatemala.
The family has said that the financial burden is overwhelming, particularly because his death happened thousands of miles away from home.
Gutiérrez Mejía’s relatives are now trying to arrange a final farewell while dealing with the shock of his sudden death.
The family’s fundraiser says the money will help with funeral and burial or cremation expenses, transportation, unexpected costs and support for his parents.
For those who knew him, the goal is simple: to bring him home.
But while Gutiérrez Mejía’s loved ones were trying to understand how someone who had only just arrived in Los Angeles could suddenly be gone, another family was facing its own devastating loss.
That loss belonged to George Marciniw.
George Marciniw spent decades in aviation
Marciniw was the pilot of the helicopter carrying Moreno when it crashed.
For fellow pilot Esteban Jimenez, however, Marciniw was much more than a colleague.
The two had known each other since the 1990s. Jimenez said Marciniw had once been his instructor and had remained a trusted friend and source of guidance throughout his career.
“I knew him since the 90s. He was my instructor at one time, he was my eyes and ears here in L.A.,” Jimenez said.
Marciniw was someone Jimenez could turn to when he needed advice or wanted to talk through what was happening in the aviation world.
“He let me know what was going on with everything,” Jimenez recalled.
And then came the detail that has stayed with him.
Their final conversation
Jimenez revealed that he and Marciniw had spoken on the Sunday before the Tuesday crash.
There was nothing about the conversation that suggested it would become their last.
They were simply talking about the industry they had shared for so many years.
“I just spoke to him on Sunday,” Jimenez told NBC News.
Then he explained what they had discussed:
“We were talking about the aviation business and retiring,”
Only days later, Marciniw would be dead.
“I just cannot believe this,” Jimenez added.
”Something didn’t look right”
The conversation has taken on a painful significance because Marciniw had apparently been thinking about what life might look like after aviation.
A man who had spent decades in the air had been discussing the possibility of finally stepping away. Neither friend could have known that their ordinary Sunday conversation would become one of their final memories together.
The KNBC helicopter had been covering a deadly Metro bus collision in Chatsworth when disaster struck.
Thirty-eight-year-old Eliana Moreno was an aerial photojournalist and reporter, covering breaking news from the helicopter while George Marciniw piloted the aircraft. The two had been flying together since 2023 and had become a familiar team to viewers during some of Southern California’s biggest breaking-news stories.
Then, shortly before 7 p.m., the helicopter went down near a commercial area in Chatsworth. Emergency crews were already nearby because of the earlier traffic collision and quickly rushed to the wreckage.
Fire officials said the helicopter was engulfed in flames, with the fire spreading to nearby vehicles.
Moreno and Marciniw’s deaths sent shockwaves through the NBC4 and Telemundo 52 teams.
“We’re coming on the air with heavy hearts tonight because we lost valued friends and colleagues just before 7 p.m.,” anchors Colleen Williams and Carolyn Johnson said as they confirmed the deaths.
The loss was particularly painful for colleagues who had worked closely with the pair.
“We are heartbroken,” KNBC anchor Lynette Romero later said. “We share our lives together. We cover tragedies and we cover triumphs. So Eliana and George were a really important part of that.”
Investigation continues
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash, with the Federal Aviation Administration also involved.
A witness said the helicopter appeared to be moving strangely before descending.
“As we were driving, I looked over to my left,” witness Zareh Sevanesian recalled while speaking to NBC4.
“I saw the helicopter — something didn’t look right. And I told my wife, ‘That helicopter is not flying right.’”
He said the aircraft appeared to lose altitude gradually before the crash.
“It was just getting lower and lower and lower and lower,” he said.
The witness later described the fire as “one of the most violent fires I had ever seen.”
Investigators will now work to determine exactly what happened during the helicopter’s final moments.
For the families left behind, however, the questions cannot change what has already happened.
Gutiérrez Mejía had come to Los Angeles expecting a brief work trip.
Marciniw had spent decades in aviation and had recently been talking with a friend about retirement.
Moreno was doing the work she loved.
Three very different lives — and three families — were forever changed in a matter of seconds.
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