News Helicopter Crashes, Multiple Casualties Reported

Three people are dead, and two others were critically injured after an NBC Los Angeles helicopter crashed in the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday.

According to the media outlet, the helicopter was covering news for NBCLA and Telemundo 52 when it crashed in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth.

It was further confirmed that the helicopter was NewsChopper4, owned and operated by Angel City Air, and that it was providing news coverage. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was covering a deadly accident involving a Metro bus.

The helicopter crash resulted in a fire, which damaged four cars and two storage containers.

While sharing details about the crash, Fire Capt. Brandon Silverman stated, “From the helicopter itself, it’s pretty well destroyed. So we are going to have to go through the rubble and see how many victims there were on board, as well as identify the helicopter; we couldn’t even see a tail.”

Witnesses of the crash said the helicopter erupted in a fireball immediately after it hit the ground at a nearby parking lot.

“My husband’s in law enforcement,” one witness explained. “He said the helicopter is looking strange. We noticed that it was swaying. Five seconds later… we saw large smoke.”

The victims of the crash were Angel City Air employee Eliana Moreno and the helicopter’s pilot. A person on the ground, later identified as Edy Gutierrez Mejia, was also killed.

The two people who were critically injured in the crash were rushed to a nearby hospital. Their condition remains unknown.