LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter crashed between two commercial buildings in suburban Los Angeles on Tuesday night, killing at least three people, local authorities said.
Four people were assessed, with three pronounced dead at the scene, while another was taken to a local hospital in an unknown condition, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said.
The crash occurred at around 7 p.m. local time (0200 GMT Wednesday) in the Chatsworth neighborhood, about 40 km northwest of downtown Los Angeles, near the site of an earlier deadly bus collision to which emergency crews had been responding.
A total of 56 firefighters responded to the incident, the LAFD said. The fire was completely extinguished and did not spread to any structures. Four automobiles and two storage containers were damaged by the fire.
NBC4 later confirmed that the crashed helicopter was the station's news helicopter. It also confirmed reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were among those killed in the crash.
An LAFD spokesperson said another person killed in the crash was a pedestrian on the ground.
The cause of the crash remains unknown. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will handle the investigation, the LAFD said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath told reporters Tuesday night that there were "serious questions about what happened tonight."
"Tonight is not the time to speculate about those answers, tonight is the time to care for the people who are hurting, to support our first responders and to stand together as a community," she added.
In the bus crash earlier in the evening, three people were killed and five others injured when an SUV crashed into a Metro bus in Chatsworth, according to local media reports.
"This is a tragic night for Los Angeles. My thoughts are with those impacted by the bus collision and the helicopter crash, and with the entire NBC4 family who lost members of their team while they were doing their jobs," Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass said. ■
