They are the eyes in sky, bringing to your television screens live car chases, gunmen shooting from rooftops and horrific traffic collisions, all across the vast Southern California landscape at a moment’s notice.
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Why do they do this dangerous job?
Part thrill ride, part journalism.
“I really enjoyed the flying part of it,” said Tim Lynn, 72, a retired news pilot/reporter for Sky5 on KTLA 5 news broadcasts. “I was told to go somewhere and I had no idea where I was going to end up. And there always were constant challenges.”
He worked in the job from May 2009 until he retired in November 2020, picking up an Emmy Award for his coverage of the UCLA water main break that flooded Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins’ basketball arena in Westwood, in 2014. Today, the Orange County resident who grew up in Torrance flies the helicopter for the Huntington Beach Police Department, looking for bad guys or rescues in the popular coastal city.
Lynn’s phone blew up Tuesday evening, Sept. 15, after the crash of NewsChopper4 around 7 p.m. in Chatsworth, 9151 Mason Ave., near Nordhoff Street. The crash killed three people and injured two others.
Reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed aboard the helicopter, which is operated by Angel City Air and provided news coverage for NBC4 and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52, NBC4 announced.
Moreno and Marciniw were covering the collision between an SUV and an L.A. Metro bus that left three dead near the site of the helicopter crash.
“My phone started going off and people were asking: ‘Is that You?’ he said on Wednesday, Sept. 16. It’s a tight community and he knew whose chopper went down from texts and from watching news coverage.
He helped train Moreno when she was with KTLA and they worked together for about two years, before she left for NBC4.
“She was a ray of sunshine in a rough and tumble business,” Lynn said.
They would always fly out of Whiteman Airport, a general aviation airport in Pacoima, he said. That is where Angel City Air, the owners of the news helicopters, is based.
Moreno and Marciniw flew from Whiteman on the day of their fatal flight, Lynn said.
The helicopters, Lynn said, all receive air worthiness certificates from the Federal Aviation Administration. “All planes and helicopters flying are regulated by the FAA, except the military,” he said.
The airport has been under fire by L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath recently. There have been several small airplane crashes that took off from Whiteman. Some landed on the runway, others landed in commercial areas or streets in Pacoima.
Rodriguez has called for the closure of the airport. Others who use the facility, and point out it is used by the Los Angeles County Fire Department for its fire-fighting helicopters, say it serves a meaningful community purpose.
Lynn’s closest call came in August 2012, when circling a gunman shooting rounds from a shotgun off his balcony in Hollywood. A fellow news chopper pilot about 100 yards away radioed him his helicopter was blowing out black smoke. He sped up the rotors and turned back, seeing for himself his chopper spewing more smoke.
“He said: ‘Hey Tim. You are smoking.’ I said ‘I am?’” Lynn said.
He saw the smoke get worse and heard his buddy tell him over the radio to land the aircraft immediately.
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Lynn avoided the cars on the street and instead, steered the helicopter to a landing spot in an empty parking lot at Franklin Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, near the Hollywood Bowl.
“To protect people on the ground,” Lynn said.
Since 2000, there have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the United States, killing 16 people, according to federal records and news accounts, the New York Times reported.
The fatal crash on Tuesday was the second involving a helicopter reporting for NBC4. On Aug. 1, 1977, a Bell 206 news helicopter piloted by Francis Gary Powers ran out of fuel and crashed into a field near Encino, killing Powers and the aircraft’s only passenger, cameraman George Spears.
Powers was best known as the pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down while flying a secret CIA spying mission over the Soviet Union in 1960. Powers was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison for espionage. He served 21 months of his sentence before being released in a prisoner swap in 1962.
In 2020, a helicopter crashed into the Calabasas hills, killing Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others.
A helicopter covering the 2000 Academy Awards crashed in a ball of flames at Van Nuys Airport. The pilot and a cameraman were injured.
In today’s skies, helicopter pilots must also look out for drones, which are prohibited from flying in and around airports.
“But there’s always a guy who doesn’t follow the rules,” Lynn said.
He remembers seeing a green light come toward him while flying over the Cahuenga Pass above the 101 Freeway. Turns out the light he thought was a plane was a drone.
“That drone zipped by my window,” he said.
The biggest story covered by air was the 1994 low-speed chase of then-murder suspect O.J. Simpson in a car followed by several law enforcement vehicles. That was seen by millions on their TV screens.
“That started news from the air,” Lynn said. “It was the beginning of the pursuit culture.”
The ones he remembers were bizarre crimes and chases. One included a police pursuit of a stolen motorhome driven by a woman with her giant dogs.
Another incident he remembers was when he was following a police chase of man who was wearing a purple cape. While driving on Hollywood Boulevard, the man pointed a machine gun out his driver’s side window. The result was a shootout with LAPD officers, Lynn recalled.
The best way to approach flying a helicopter — especially in the skies above crowded Los Angeles County — is to not think too much about the danger.
“You always prepare yourself mentally for any problem,” Lynn said. “But I love flying. It is a passion I have.”
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