2 Killed, 2 Injured in Crash of Copter : Aviation: Aircraft en route from Burbank to Los Angeles struck high-tension wires over Hollywood Freeway in heavy fog, authorities say.

Two men were killed and two women were critically injured Saturday when their helicopter, traveling in pea-soup fog, hit high-tension wires several hundred feet above the Hollywood Freeway and crashed just south of Barham Boulevard, authorities said.

Los Angeles City firefighters used the Jaws of Life to extricate the victims from the Bell 206 Jet Ranger, which was nestled in the ivy by the side of the southbound lanes, City fire spokesman Bob Collis said.

Early reports from the Federal Aviation Administration said the chopper’s tail rotor clipped the high-tension wires as it traveled through the Cahuenga Pass next to the freeway.

The helicopter, owned by the Wolfe Air Co. based at Burbank Airport, was flying from Burbank to Los Angeles, said Frank King, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter pilot who was at the scene.

“They were trying to make it through the pass in low clouds and they hit the wires,” King said. “The rotor separated and the aircraft nose-dived into the embankment.”

At least some of the victims, who were not immediately identified, were in formal wear, authorities said. King said one surviving woman is an employee of an Ontario-based tour company. He also said that he knew her, and that she accompanied tourists from Burbank Airport to the city.

He added, however, that the tour employee was not the pilot of the craft.

The crash, reported at 7:47 p.m., shut down several lanes on both sides of the freeway.