NBC4 News Helicopter Crashes in Chatsworth, Killing 3

An NBC4 news helicopter crashed in flames in Chatsworth on Tuesday night while covering a deadly Metro bus collision, killing three people.

A news helicopter crashed just before 7 p.m. Tuesday in the 9100 block of Mason Avenue in Chatsworth, a San Fernando Valley neighborhood in Los Angeles, killing three people and injuring a fourth, who was taken to a hospital in unknown condition. The aircraft went down between two commercial buildings, landing on or near shipping containers and parked vehicles, and firefighters arrived to find the helicopter and several nearby cars engulfed in flames. The fire was extinguished by about 7:30 p.m., with four automobiles and two storage containers damaged but no structures hit.

The helicopter belonged to NBC4 Los Angeles, which confirmed on air shortly before 9 p.m. that its Chopper 4 had gone down. Notably, this is not NBC4's first aviation tragedy: the Los Angeles Times recalls that in 1977, former U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers died while flying a KNBC "Telecopter" that crashed near the Sepulveda Dam.

The aircraft crashed while covering an earlier emergency: a collision between an SUV and a Metro Line 166 bus on Nordhoff Street reported around 5 p.m., which left at least two people dead, with the Los Angeles Times putting the bus-crash toll at three, and as many as six others injured. Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Branden Silverman said one person killed appeared to have been a pedestrian on the ground, and that the helicopter was "pretty well destroyed," forcing crews to search the rubble to confirm how many people were aboard.

First responders were already working the bus wreck nearby when witnesses reported a fireball and a loud explosion shortly before 7 p.m. Video from inside the helicopter, reported by the Times of India, captured the aircraft apparently losing control before the recording ended on impact. Aerial and ground footage showed two shipping containers and multiple vehicles burning, with police and fire crews erecting a canopy over one body after the flames were out. LAFD said the fire never exposed any of the surrounding warehouse buildings.

The deaths of three people, including what officials describe as a bystander on the ground, renew scrutiny of helicopter news-gathering operations over crowded urban scenes. The station had earlier reported two deaths in the bus collision itself, and Mayor Karen Bass said she was "absolutely devastated by the loss of life in Chatsworth tonight," praising the city teams who responded quickly. With identities of the victims not yet released and the aircraft too damaged to identify on sight, officials could not immediately confirm how many people were aboard.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the crash, and Los Angeles police are also investigating, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Silverman said crews would have to go through the wreckage to count and identify victims aboard the aircraft. The story remains developing, with victim identities and the official cause not yet determined as of the latest reports.