By TheDailyNewsHub
A television news helicopter operated by NBC Los Angeles crashed and burst into flames in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening while news crews were covering a nearby deadly collision involving a Metro bus.
The helicopter, known as NewsChopper4, was operated by Angel City Air for NBC Los Angeles (KNBC-TV). NBC Los Angeles confirmed that the aircraft was a news helicopter covering the bus crash when it went down.
The crash occurred shortly before 7 p.m. local time in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, between two commercial buildings in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley.
The Los Angeles Fire Department later confirmed that three people were killed in the helicopter crash. One person was also taken to hospital, although officials had not immediately released that person’s condition.
The helicopter came down about 1.6 kilometres from the scene of the earlier bus collision. The aircraft caught fire after crashing, with flames also affecting several vehicles and storage containers on the ground. More than 50 firefighters responded to the scene, according to reports.
The earlier incident that had drawn the news helicopters involved an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue shortly after 5 p.m.
NBC Los Angeles reported that two people were killed and six others hospitalised following that collision. Firefighters had to rescue people trapped in the vehicles.
The helicopter was in the area as several television news aircraft covered the bus crash. The aircraft subsequently went down, creating a second major emergency in the same part of the city.
The circumstances that caused the helicopter to crash remain unclear. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are expected to investigate the incident.
NBC Los Angeles, whose call sign is KNBC-TV, is NBC’s flagship West Coast station and operates from Universal City.
The crash brought an already deadly evening in Chatsworth into further focus, with emergency crews responding simultaneously to the consequences of the bus collision and the helicopter disaster.
At the time of the initial reports, authorities were still working to establish exactly how many people had been aboard the helicopter and to identify the victims.