1 killed after plane crashes in West L.A. neighborhood

(CNN) -- One person aboard a single-engine plane was killed Friday after the aircraft crashed in a West Los Angeles neighborhood, authorities said.

The pilot of the Cessna 210 declared an emergency for unknown reasons around 6:10 p.m. shortly after leaving Santa Monica Airport, according to Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration's in its Western-Pacific region.

The plane then went down about three miles from the airport in a residential neighborhood in West Los Angeles, a few miles from the University of California, Los Angeles, said Gregor.

Overhead video from CNN affiliate KTLA showed firefighters working to douse a fire as most of the plane, including a visible part of its wing, lay in the middle of a road. The aircraft appeared to have hit at least one tree, but not any buildings directly.

The Los Angeles city fire department said in an e-mail that one person died in the crash, though his or her identity was not released.

"No other patients discovered; no home damage from fire," the fire department said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard the aircraft at the time it went down, according to Gregor, and there were no reports of injuries on the ground.

The FAA spokesman said the aircraft is registered to a Santa Monica resident.

The National Transportation Safety Board will serve as the lead investigative agency looking into the crash, assisted by the FAA, according to Gregor.