Los Angeles endured what Mayor Karen Bass called one of the city’s most painful nights in recent memory on Tuesday, after a television news helicopter crashed in the San Fernando Valley just hours after a separate, deadly Metro bus crash in the same Chatsworth neighborhood — bringing the day’s combined death toll to five.
What Happened
The helicopter, later confirmed by NBC Los Angeles to belong to the station, went down just before 7 p.m. between two commercial buildings at a storage facility in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The aircraft appears to have come down on top of shipping containers and several parked vehicles in the area, sparking a large fire that firefighters worked to contain as aerial footage captured the scene.
Officials have not yet clarified how many people were aboard the helicopter at the time of the crash. LAFD Captain Branden Silverman said one person found outside the aircraft was pronounced dead at the scene, and two additional victims were later confirmed dead as well. Two other people were transported to a nearby hospital; the extent of their injuries has not been made public. None of the victims have been officially identified.
Silverman described the wreckage as largely destroyed, meaning recovery teams will need to work through the debris carefully to confirm exactly how many people were on board and to formally identify the aircraft. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified and are assisting with the investigation, alongside the Los Angeles Police Department.
A Second Tragedy the Same Day
The helicopter crash came just hours after a Metro bus collided with a car in the same Chatsworth area, a separate incident that left multiple people injured and contributed to the day’s overall toll of five deaths across both crashes. The proximity of the two incidents, both in the same neighborhood on the same evening, compounded the shock for a community already reeling from one tragedy before the second one unfolded.
For readers looking for the latest on the immediate aftermath and ongoing investigation, CBS News Los Angeles’s continuing coverage has been tracking developments as officials release new information.
