NBC News Helicopter Crashes in Los Angeles, Killing 3
The aircraft went down while covering a separate fatal bus crash.
An NBC news helicopter crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood Tuesday evening, killing at least three people and erupting in flames. The incident occurred as news crews were covering a nearby collision between an SUV and a city bus.
Colleen Williams, an anchor for NBC4 Los Angeles, confirmed the station's helicopter crashed shortly before 7 p.m. The aircraft went down near a storage building in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley. "We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it," Williams said during a live broadcast, her voice audibly emotional, before coverage was cut.
The crash happened about a mile and a half from the site of the bus crash, where at least two people were killed and six others injured when an SUV slammed into the side of an MTA bus. Photos from that collision showed a significant portion of the SUV embedded in the bus.
Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Branden Silverman stated that at least one person killed in the helicopter crash was in the parking lot next to the commercial building where the aircraft fell. It remained unclear if the other two fatalities were on the ground or aboard the helicopter. One individual was transported to a hospital, though their condition is unknown. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, which also ignited at least four cars and two storage containers on the ground. More than 50 firefighters responded to the scene.
NBCLA confirmed the helicopter was NewsChopper4, operated by Angel City Air. Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are launching investigations into the cause of the crash. An NTSB investigator is expected to arrive Wednesday.