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National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect a downed plane on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Residents and neighbors look towards National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspecting a downed plane on a steep hill above homes at Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect a downed plane on a steep hill covered with fog above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Los Angeles Fire Department and National Transportation Safety Board officials check a downed plane on a steep hill next to a water tank above homes on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect a downed plane on a steep hill covered with fog above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect a downed plane on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect a downed plane on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Los Angeles City Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue members assist in recovering the pilot's body of a downed Cessna C172 on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. The plane avoided hitting power lines and a large water tank and, officials said, there was minimal fire. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Resident Joubin Solemani, second from left, with his family look up as Los Angeles City Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue members assist in recovering the pilot's body of a downed Cessna C172 on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Los Angeles City Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue members assist in recovering the pilot's body of a downed Cessna C172 on a steep hill above a home on Beverly Glen Circle in Los Angeles, Sunday, April 30, 2023. Fire department officials said a person was found dead following an intensive search for the single-engine airplane that crashed in a foggy area Saturday night. The plane avoided hitting power lines and a large water tank and, officials said, there was minimal fire. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

1 killed when plane slams into hillside in LA neighborhood

By Associated Press East Los Angeles

PUBLISHED 7:16 PM ET Apr. 30, 2023 PUBLISHED April 30, 2023 @7:16 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One person was killed when a single-engine plane slammed into a grassy hillside above homes in a Los Angeles neighborhood amid dense fog, authorities said.

The Cessna C172 crashed around 8:45 p.m. Saturday on the city's west side, about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Van Nuys Airport, the Los Angeles Fire Department and Federal Aviation Administration said.

Joubin Solemani was at home with his family in the upscale Beverly Crest area when they all heard a loud crash.

“We thought it might be a car crash. But we looked outside and didn't see anything. We didn't know what the heck it was,” Solemani said Sunday. “Then search-and-rescue showed up and were all over the hillside.”

After searching for several hours in darkness and "thick ground level fog,” crews found the crash site and one person dead in the wreckage, the fire department said in a statement. The pilot was the plane's lone occupant, the FAA said.

When the sun came up Sunday, Solemani said he could see the plane a few hundred feet (meters) above his property in the Santa Monica Mountains. “It's totally mangled,” he told The Associated Press.

The pilot was not immediately identified. Fire department personnel recovered the body Sunday afternoon.

The plane avoided hitting power lines and a large water tank and, officials said, there was minimal fire.

An air traffic controller initially reported the plane as missing after losing radar contact with the aircraft while it was en route to Van Nuys Airport, the fire department said in an alert shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.