The aircraft went down in a commercial parking lot near the site of an earlier Metro bus collision that killed two people.
LOS ANGELES, CA — Three people were killed and another person was hospitalized Tuesday evening after a news helicopter crashed into a parking lot in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, authorities said.
The helicopter went down shortly before 7 p.m. Sept. 15 in the 9100 block of North Mason Avenue, between commercial buildings in the west San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles Fire Department officials said four people were assessed at the scene. Three were pronounced dead, while a fourth was taken to a hospital in unknown condition.
At least one of those killed was on the ground in the parking lot, Fire Department Capt. Branden Silverman said. Authorities had not immediately determined how many people were aboard the helicopter or whether the other people who died had been inside the aircraft. The identities of those killed had not been released.
The helicopter crashed into or near several parked vehicles and sparked a fire. More than 50 firefighters responded, and officials said the flames damaged four vehicles and two storage containers before crews extinguished the fire Tuesday evening. The helicopter was heavily damaged, complicating efforts to determine who had been aboard.
NBC4 confirmed that the aircraft was a news helicopter. Several television helicopters had been operating over Chatsworth after an earlier collision involving a Los Angeles Metro bus and an SUV. The cause of the helicopter crash was not immediately known.
The earlier collision occurred around 5 p.m. near Nordhoff Street and De Soto Avenue. An SUV struck the side of a Metro bus, leaving two people dead and six others injured, according to fire officials. Emergency crews had to free people trapped in the bus after the SUV became lodged in its side.
The helicopter went down roughly 1.5 miles from the bus crash scene as news crews were covering the earlier emergency. The two incidents brought a large response from firefighters, police and other emergency personnel to the Chatsworth area over the course of the evening.
Officials had not released information about what may have caused the helicopter to go down. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are expected to investigate the crash. Investigators will examine the wreckage and other available evidence as they work to establish the aircraft’s flight path and the circumstances leading to the crash.
Authorities had not announced the identities of the helicopter crash victims or provided an updated condition for the hospitalized person early Wednesday. The number of people aboard the aircraft also remained under investigation.
Author note: Last updated September 16, 2026.