One person was killed after a small plane crashed into a hillside in a California residential neighborhood.

A small Cessna C172 slammed into a hillside in the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles around 8.45pm on Saturday night.

The pilot, the plane’s sole occupant, was found dead at the scene of the crash, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) confirmed. The pilot was identified as an adult male, but has not yet been named.

The aircraft departed from Bermuda Dunes Airport earlier that evening, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed. It was originally bound for Camarillo Airport, but was redirected to Van Nuys Airport, located about 8 miles from the crash site.

The LAFD responded to the crash on foot, as the ‘thick ground level fog’ prevented rescuers from searching for the plane by air.

They found the aircraft crashed on a hillside above a row of residential homes in Beverly Crest. The plane only narrowly avoided hitting power lines and a nearby water tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB are both investigating this incident.

The NTSB told Metro.co.uk that the plane’s wreckage is expected to be recovered on Monday. It will then be transferred to an NTSB facility where investigators will conduct a wreckage layout and examination.

Saturday night’s incident is not the first deadly small plane crash this year. In January, a small Beechcraft aircraft crashed in Westchester County, New York. Both the pilot and an additional passenger were killed in the accident.

Another small aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in Little Rock, Arkansas in February. All five occupants on board the plane were killed. They were identified as environmental consultants en route to the site of a deadly factory explosion in Ohio.

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