NewsChopper 4

Eliana dreamed of becoming a news reporter from the time she was 11, her family says. She grew up in Tustin, went to Foothill High School and graduated from Chapman University in 2010, the year she joined Angel City Air, the company that flew NewsChopper 4.

She reported from the air in English for NBC4 and in Spanish for Telemundo 52. Telemundo 52 calls her the only bilingual reporter whose office was a helicopter, and says that for 16 years she kept the community informed. In 2023 she shared a Golden Mike award with the NBC4 team. A California Highway Patrol spokesman told Telemundo 52 that she was always alert, and watched over officers from above. NBC4 morning co-anchor Lynette Romero remembered her this way: “She’s teeny-tiny, but she had the biggest heart and enthusiasm.”

On Instagram she was “Eli in the heli,” and she called herself a dog and chicken mom. She was engaged to be married, and she leaves her parents, her fiancé, her stepsons and five brothers and sisters. Her family says they find comfort in knowing she “left this world doing the very thing she loved.”

George was a Burbank man all his life. He went to John Muir Middle School and graduated from Burbank High in 1974, and Burbank’s mayor says he still lived in the city.

He is believed to have flown for more than 30 years, and more than 14,000 hours by NBC News’ count. He also taught other people to fly. Esteban Jimenez, a pilot George once taught, had known him since the 1990s and says he was close to retiring. From 2023 George and Eliana flew together, often on the evening shift, through the January 2025 wildfires and more police chases than anyone could count. NBC4 meteorologist Belen De Leon put it simply: “When you thought about NewsChopper4, you thought about George.”

At the Ukrainian Catholic church in East Hollywood, where he had gone since he was a boy, people knew him as “Yurko,” and his priest hopes to name the pew where George usually sat after him. His neighbor of 11 years remembers him as sweet and kind, and hopes the lavender he planted will keep growing. At The Blue Room in Burbank he was “Helicopter George”: a friend there says the crew sometimes flew over the patio on the way back to the airport, and people would come out and wave.

Edy came from Cuilapa, a town in Guatemala’s Santa Rosa department, where people knew him as “Pichi.” He had come to Los Angeles on business. A friend back home remembered a cheerful, hard-working young man who was always there for anyone who needed him. His parents shared photographs of him with a Telemundo news team that traveled to Cuilapa: Edy smiling in the snow, and Edy holding a trophy on a soccer field. His hometown asked for prayers for his eternal rest, and for God to give his family patience in their sorrow. As of September 16, his family was working to bring him home.

Danny’s family was everything to him, his cousin says, and his laugh was contagious. His loved ones remember a jokester who lit up every room he walked into, and a selfless man who always made time for his family. His daughter says he brought laughter and light into everyone’s lives. That Tuesday he was on his way home from work and had just gotten on the bus.

Gage’s partner of eight years called him “one in a million.” His father remembers a big teddy bear with a heart of gold, who loved everybody and loved life. He would have turned 32 that Saturday, September 19, and his family had already planned a trip to celebrate with him. That Tuesday he was on his way to work, where, a co-worker says, he was always on time.