LA Driver Arrested After Bus Crash Leads to Deadly News Helicopter Crash

Driver Arrested on Murder Charges Following Los Angeles Bus Collision That Preceded Fatal News Helicopter Crash

Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, was arrested Tuesday night, September 15, 2026, and held on a $4 million bail after authorities stated she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy Los Angeles avenue, ran a red light, and slammed into a city bus. The catastrophic collision killed at least two people and injured six others, setting off a horrific chain of events that culminated roughly two hours later in the fiery crash of a television news helicopter covering the initial tragedy.

Photo: ctvnews.ca

The sequence of disasters has left families, first responders, and newsrooms grappling with profound loss. According to police, the initial impact of the SUV against the city bus was so violent that one passenger was fully ejected and another was partially ejected. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office and local authorities identified two of the individuals who died in the bus crash as Daniel Castillo, 46, of Los Angeles, and Gage Weida, 31. The case has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office to determine formal charges.

The Tragic Downed Chopper and the Final Recorded Moments

As emergency crews and local news outlets rushed to cover the wreckage of the bus collision, a second tragedy unfolded in the Chatsworth neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley. A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter operated by Angel City Air for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 went down near a large storage facility, sparking a fire that consumed at least four cars and two storage containers.

Photo: yahoo.com

The crash claimed the lives of three people: reporter Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw, and a person on the ground identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia of Guatemala, whose identity was confirmed by the Guatemalan consulate. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Fabian Salazar noted during a Wednesday news briefing that recovered broadcast video from the aircraft is central to the ongoing federal probe.

“That video is probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far,” Fabian Salazar stated, pointing to cockpit audio captured in the final seconds of the flight. The recording features an alarm sounding, a woman’s voice saying “uh oh” as the helicopter rapidly loses altitude, and a final query of “You can’t pull up?” before the transmission cuts off near the ground.

Family Grief and Corporate Mourning Across Southern California

In the wake of the twin tragedies, relatives of the accused driver and colleagues of the fallen journalists have voiced their shock. Cindy Rios, mother of Bailee Lynn Rios, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday that she had not spoken to her daughter since the arrest and had received no contact from law enforcement. “It’s just horrible,” Cindy Rios said. “The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is just extremely disturbing. If anything, I’m sorry for the other families. My daughter’s alive. People lost their lives.”

At NBC4, news anchors and reporters delivered tearful tributes to Moreno and Marciniw. Moreno graduated from Chapman University in 2010 and began flying alongside Marciniw in 2023. Marciniw, a Southern California native, graduated from Burbank High School in 1974. “I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss,” NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado told viewers during early Wednesday broadcasts.

Federal investigators from the NTSB continue to examine both the initial bus collision caused by the SUV and the factors surrounding the subsequent helicopter crash.