West Los Angeles Plane Crash Leaves One Dead [Video]

Authorities say a small plane crashed in Western Los Angeles Friday, killing one person on board.

According to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor, the pilot of the single-engine Cessna 210 was returning to Santa Monica Airport and declared an emergency shortly before crashing about 6pm.

The aircraft went down shortly after, crashing near the intersection of Westwood and Olympic boulevards, in a densely populated residential neighborhood a few miles from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The age and gender of the pilot were not released, and no other victims were discovered at the scene.

A man who said he was driving in the area before the crash told NBC that he noticed the plane flying extremely low but “didn’t hear any abnormal engine noise.”

However, the fact that the plane was flying “extremely” low did worry him: “It was a red flag immediately.”

Another eyewitness, Juan Carlos Carmona, says the pilot was attempting to land but lost control of the aircraft.

“He hit a palm first and then he went in and crashed right there on the corner,” Carmona told the Santa Monica Mirror.

According to Carmona, the plane was flying in from the north when it lost altitude and slammed into a palm tree and burst into flames.

LAFD assistant chief Andy Fox said firefighters responding to an earlier car crash nearby saw the plane go down and were able to summon help quickly and extinguish the flames.

Television footage from a news helicopter showed the charred wreckage beneath street trees and a broken wing on the sidewalk.

NBC has more on the Westwood plane crash in the video below:

Image: KTLA