A television news helicopter crashed in a fireball Tuesday evening while covering a separate deadly Metro bus collision in Chatsworth, leaving three people dead and another hospitalized.

The aircraft came down shortly before 7 p.m. in a parking area at 9151 N. Mason Avenue, only blocks from the earlier wreck.

Flames spread to nearby vehicles and storage containers before firefighters brought the fire under control. One of the people killed was on the ground, according to local reporting.

Officials had not yet publicly identified the victims or established how many people were aboard the helicopter.

The Los Angeles Fire Department posted its first detailed update from the crash scene:

ADVERTISEMENT

The Los Angeles Fire Department said 56 firefighters responded in force to the 6:57 Tuesday evening alarm at 9151 Mason Avenue in the Chatsworth neighborhood. Four automobiles and two storage containers were damaged, but the fire did not spread into any structure.

Four patients were assessed at the aircraft-crash scene. Three were pronounced dead and one was taken to a hospital in unknown condition.

The department said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration would handle the investigation. The cause was not immediately known.

Early video showed the helicopter engulfed in flames as thick black smoke rose over the San Fernando Valley. The wreckage was concentrated between commercial properties near Mason Avenue.

The official update also ruled out a wider structural fire, a significant point given the intensity of the flames visible in early footage. Firefighters contained the damage to the aircraft, four vehicles and two storage containers.

LAFD listed the response as Incident 1526 and said the aircraft-crash scene involved four assessed patients in all. The department did not assign those patients to the helicopter or the ground in that first written update.

KTLA shared a view from the scene as emergency crews converged on the area:

ABC7 Los Angeles identified the aircraft as a news helicopter and reported that the person killed on the ground was among the three confirmed deaths.

The station said authorities still had not publicly established how many people were inside the aircraft. It also remained unclear whether the person taken to the hospital had been aboard or was on the ground.

ADVERTISEMENT

Those unanswered questions matter in the first hours after a crash this destructive. Fire crews were forced to extinguish burning wreckage and then work through an aircraft described by an LAFD spokesman as heavily destroyed.

ABC7’s update separated the confirmed death toll from the still-uncertain seating and transport details. That distinction avoids treating the number of victims as a confirmed count of aircraft occupants before investigators complete their work.

The station’s footage showed firefighters, police and wreckage across the parking area after the flames were knocked down. Its report said the aircraft was a television news helicopter but did not publish the victims’ names.

The Associated Press reported that LAFD Capt. Branden Silverman said during a scene briefing that crews initially could not determine how many people had been inside the aircraft.

Responders would have to examine the rubble after the helicopter struck the parking area near several vehicles. Silverman described the aircraft as heavily destroyed.

The AP also reported that the person killed on the ground was in the parking lot. At that stage of the response, officials were still working to determine whether anyone aboard had survived.

The aircraft came down at or beside parked vehicles outside a large one-story commercial property. That explains why the first emergency updates focused on both the wreckage and possible ground victims.

Officials did not offer an early theory for the loss of control. The AP’s account kept the cause open while the federal investigators prepared to take custody of the scene.

The location was already packed with emergency crews because of a violent collision near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue.

ADVERTISEMENT

In that separate wreck, an SUV slammed into the side of a Metro bus. The Los Angeles Fire Department said eight patients were involved: two people died at the scene and six others were transported to hospitals.

The helicopter was covering that collision when it went down nearby. The two incidents created a sprawling emergency response across Chatsworth, with roads closed and crews moving between two fatal scenes.

LAFD logged the bus collision as Incident 1299 at 20900 Nordhoff Street. Its update said the intersection would remain closed for an unknown period while police and fire personnel worked the scene.

The Mayor’s Crisis Response Team was notified, and an LAFD public-information officer was sent to a staging location north of the intersection. The department did not immediately release the identities or hospital conditions of the six people transported.

The proximity of the two scenes produced a brutal sequence: a deadly ground collision drew the helicopter to Chatsworth, and the aircraft then crashed close to the emergency operation below.

ABC7 later reported the updated toll and showed video from the aircraft-crash scene:

The Gateway Pundit published video captured during the live aerial report as the helicopter went down, followed by footage showing the aircraft consumed by flames.

The images are horrifying, but they do not yet answer the central question of what failed in the air. The FAA and NTSB investigation will examine the aircraft, flight path, maintenance history, communications and other evidence before reaching any conclusion.

The video begins with an aerial view of the first crash scene and then records a sudden loss of the stable camera image. It does not provide enough information to determine whether the helicopter suffered a mechanical failure, struck an object or encountered another problem.

ADVERTISEMENT

A second clip shows the fire from above after the aircraft came down. Flames and dark smoke spread across the parking area as emergency crews approached.

The outlet’s first report said two crew members were aboard, but officials had not confirmed that number. The aircraft-occupant count remains open until authorities identify it.

This remains a developing story. The confirmed facts are already grim: five people died across two crashes in the same Chatsworth neighborhood, and another person from the helicopter scene was hospitalized.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.