Chopper Crash Kills 3 in Reality Show Shoot

Three people were killed yesterday in a pre-dawn helicopter crash in a rural area of northern Los Angeles County while filming for a new reality TV show for the Discovery Channel. The copter crashed at about 3:40am at the popular filming location of Polsa Rosa Ranch in the city of Acton, a fire official said. All three people aboard died, he said; their names weren't immediately released. The show, listed on a filming permit as an untitled military-theme TV program, had not yet been aired or announced by Discovery.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families," the channel said in a statement. The show's production company, Eyeworks USA, best known for creating NBC's The Biggest Loser, also issued a statement expressing sympathies to the victims' families and saying they were cooperating with authorities. The company had been approved to use a helicopter for a reality TV show shooting at the ranch from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning, said an official. The cause and other circumstances surrounding the crash were still unknown, an FAA rep said. (More Discovery Channel stories.)