They were covering a fatal bus crash in Los Angeles when their NBC LA helicopter went down, killing reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw. On the ground, a third person, Gutierrez Mejia, was also killed. The crash footage was harrowing, with numerous warning sirens blaring to signal a serious mechanical issue. Now, we have the audio, where Moreno appears to be asking Marciniw if they’re unable to pull up as the aircraft was crashing toward the ground (via LA Times):

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday were trying to determine exactly what caused the news helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 B2, to go down.

NTSB Investigator Fabian Salazar said officials are searching through the wreckage, combing through maintenance logbooks, security footage, weather reports, witness interviews and reviewing the pilot’s training to figure out what went wrong.

But the most critical information so far has been audio captured from the helicopter during a live broadcast of reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw’s final moments before it crashed.

The footage shows an aerial view of the bus crash with the whirl of the helicopter in the background. Suddenly, the sound of the engine’s motor winds down and a horn blares, possibly warning the pilot that the main rotor speed had dropped too low or the helicopter had lost hydraulics. Moreno responds to the noise with a quiet “uh oh.”

The angle of the camera begins to descend and Moreno is heard asking “You can’t pull up?” before the video cuts out. Moreno, Marciniw and 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the chopper went down around 7 p.m., were killed.

“That video is probably the most important piece of evidence we have recovered so far,” Salazar said.

The chopper was covering a bus that crashed into an SUV in the San Fernando Valley, which also killed two people. 

Tributes and condolences were shared, and thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the victims. This is truly awful.