Pilot killed after small plane crashes into hillside above Los Angeles neighborhood

LOS ANGELES — A pilot was killed on Saturday night when his single-engine plane crashed into a hillside above a Los Angeles neighborhood, authorities said.

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The Los Angeles Fire Department was contacted by air traffic control personnel seeking assistance in locating a plane that had gone missing at about 8 p.m. PDT, KTLA-TV reported.

The plane is registered as a Cessna Skyhawk C172 with the aircraft tail number N575ND, according to the television station. Online records indicate the plane is registered to Camarillo Flight Instruction and took off from Palm Springs around 6:49 p.m. PDT.

Authorities located the aircraft in the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles, KABC-TV reported. The plane was found “upon a steep hillside that includes a large water tank (not damaged), above a home,” police said.

No other deaths or injuries were reported, according to the television station.

Witnesses described the crash as sounding like a “bomb.”

“We did hear it. It was behind us, not in front of us,” one resident, who was not identified, told KCBS-TV. “Like a big bomb. It was very, very loud and we could feel some vibrations as well.”

“We were just sitting in our living room, and then we heard a large crashing noise,” Joubin Soleimani told KTLA. “It sounded like an 18-wheeler crashed.”

Authorities have not released the name of the pilot.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, KABC reported. The National Transportation Safety Board is assisting in the investigation, KTLA reported.