The local NBC station in Los Angeles has started covering news from the air once again, about two months after the outlet’s helicopter crashed in a neighborhood while on assignment.
Earlier this week, KNBC (Channel 4) debuted a new helicopter leased by Angel City Air and flown by the aviation company’s owner Larry Welk, marking the first time that the station has offered an above-ground view of the Los Angeles market since September’s deadly helicopter crash.
The station introduced the new helicopter by honoring the memory of photojournalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Maciniw, who died when the aircraft went down in the Chatsworth neighborhood on September 15.
“We miss them every single day,” KNBC anchor Colleen Williams said on Monday. “We will always honor and celebrate their contributions and our commitment to the community…their passion for flying and journalism has been a part of so many conversations over these past few months.”
The helicopter crashed while Moreno and Maciniw were covering a collision between a Los Angeles municipal bus and a sports utility vehicle. Nearly two hours into its flight, the helicopter began experiencing some kind of malfunction, with audible sirens heard on footage captured by its on-board camera and microphones.
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed the helicopter was flying about 800 feet above the ground, too low to perform an “auto-rotation” maneuver that could have resulted in the safe landing of the aircraft. Instead, the underside of the helicopter impacted a steel shipping container near an industrial building, causing the fuselage to burst into flames and killing both people on board. A third person on the ground was fatally wounded by debris.
“It was 100 percent gutting for all of us, and a lot of us in the aviation community started to wonder if we could go on,” Welk said during Monday’s flight. “And the answer is, we can go on.”
The NTSB continues to probe the crash, and is expected to issue a final report on the matter between late 2027 and early 2028.
The original helicopter was an Airbus AS350, which was the subject of a safety bulletin involving its main rotor drive first identified in 2023. The safety bulletin was proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that same year and became effective just says before the crash of KNBC’s helicopter, according to records obtained by The Desk.
It was not clear if Angel City Air completed the recommended repairs to the aircraft, and a spokesperson for the company did not return a request for comment.
KNBC is owned by Comcast’s NBC Universal.
