Multiple people killed after helicopter crashes into radio tower in Houston

A helicopter crashed into a radio tower Sunday night in Houston, Texas, leaving multiple people dead, including a child, according to officials.

The Houston Fire Department said the incident happened in the city’s Greater East End neighborhood at 7:54 p.m. The private aircraft with four people onboard either struck a cable coming from the tower or actually struck the tower, Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said at a news conference, according to The New York Times.

There were no casualties on the ground, Diaz said.

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It was not immediately known if all four people onboard the helicopter had died. Officials said they did not know the age of the deceased child.

Fire officials said a blaze the size of two to three blocks started in a grass field after the radio tower collapsed. No other structures on the ground were impacted by the crash.

Houston mayor John Whitmire said the incident was "tragic" but that "it is fortunate it wasn't worse," as a gas tank near the scene and homes in the area were not impacted.

The tower "is surrounded by residents and that's where we were very fortunate that it didn't topple in one direction or another," he said. "The fireball was pretty much isolated."

The mayor said there were some power outages for residents near the scene, but the number of people impacted and how long they will have outages was not immediately known.

Some residents told The New York Times the crash shook their homes and felt like an earthquake. One resident said an explosion then occurred and the lights in his home briefly flickered on and off.

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City council member Mario Castillo said on the social media platform X that he was monitoring the helicopter crash and that it was a "private touring helicopter" rather than one that belonged to the Houston Police Department.

The incident remains under investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration is leading the investigation into the crash.