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LCCN Staff Report
CHATSWORTH — A helicopter crashed and burst into flames Tuesday evening near the scene of an earlier collision between an SUV and a Los Angeles Metro bus that killed two people and injured six others.
The helicopter went down shortly before 7 p.m. in a parking area between commercial buildings in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue in Chatsworth.
Los Angeles firefighters arriving at the scene encountered a heavily damaged helicopter and a fire involving nearby vehicles and storage containers. More than 50 firefighters responded and extinguished the blaze.
Authorities said at least three people were killed in the helicopter crash and another person was transported to a hospital. At least one of those killed was found outside the aircraft in the parking lot.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Branden Silverman said investigators were still trying to determine how many people had been aboard the helicopter.
The aircraft was heavily damaged, complicating efforts to determine the number and identities of the victims.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash and determine what caused the helicopter to go down.
The helicopter crash occurred roughly two hours after emergency crews responded to a separate deadly collision involving an SUV and a Metro bus at Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue.
That crash was reported shortly after 5 p.m.
Images from the scene showed the front portion of the SUV embedded deep into the side of the Metro bus. The impact trapped several people and prompted a large-scale rescue operation.
An Urban Search and Rescue team was called to help extricate victims from the wreckage. At the height of the response, 56 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel were working at the scene.
Two people were pronounced dead and six others were transported to a hospital. Authorities had not immediately released their identities or the severity of the injuries.
After the SUV was removed, a large opening could be seen torn through the side of the Metro bus, illustrating the force of the collision.
The cause of the bus collision remains under investigation.
The two crashes, occurring within hours of one another in the same area of the northwest San Fernando Valley, brought a massive emergency response to Chatsworth Tuesday evening.
Federal investigators are expected to examine the helicopter wreckage as authorities work to determine the sequence of events leading to the crash.
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