LOS ANGELES (CNN) — Three people died early Sunday when a helicopter went down on a Southern California property where movies are filmed, a federal aviation official said.
Philip Sokoloski, a spokesman for FilmL.A., which processes filming permits for location shootings in the Los Angeles region, said a production company had been approved to use a helicopter for a reality TV show. The shoot was scheduled to go from Saturday afternoon into Saturday night.
The crash occurred around 3:30 a.m. at the Polsa Rosa Movie Ranch in Acton, on the northwestern edge of the Angeles National Forest about 30 miles north of Los Angeles.
The Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter hit the ground “under unknown circumstances,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said, who added that his agency and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The three people killed were the only ones aboard, Kenitzer said, citing local authorities.
The 730-acre Polsa Rosa Movie Ranch contains a variety of settings for filming -- from a jungle to a mud pit to more desert terrain -- its website notes. Films shot there, at least in part, include "Red Dawn," "Adaptation," "Windtalkers" and "The Outsider," according to the Internet Movie Database.
(The CNN wire and CBS news reports were used in this report)
