Helicopter Crash in Los Angeles Kills Three, Injures One

Three people were killed and one was injured when a helicopter crashed between two commercial buildings in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Four patients were assessed at the scene, three of whom were pronounced dead. The fourth was taken to a local hospital in unknown condition.

One of those killed was a pedestrian in a parking lot, LAFD Fire Captain Branden Silverman said. The person was pulled from the fire area by police officers and pronounced dead by paramedics.

It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the helicopter or whether anyone else killed was on the ground.

The first crew to arrive reported the helicopter down between the buildings, with fire from the crash spreading to four vehicles, the LAFD said. Fifty-six firefighters responded and later extinguished the fire, with no structures exposed. Four automobiles and two storage containers were damaged.

The helicopter was engulfed in flames when crews arrived, Silverman said at an earlier briefing, when searchers were still going through the wreckage.

The make and type of the helicopter were not known, and it was unclear where the aircraft had come from, according to the LAFD. Silverman also declined to say whether the aircraft was a news helicopter.

"I don't want to speculate that it's a news helicopter because we have not confirmed that yet," he said.

The crash came hours after three people were killed and six others injured when a sport utility vehicle struck the side of a Metro bus in Chatsworth, which is in the San Fernando Valley, north of central Los Angeles. The LAFD said it was unclear whether the helicopter was connected to the bus crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will handle the investigation.