Kobe Bryant crash pilot had spatial disorientation, NTSB says

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into a foggy Calabasas hill a year ago, killing Kobe Bryant and eight others on board, should not have flown in cloudy conditions where he became disoriented, said federal regulators said Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said pilot Ara Zobayan suffered spatial disorientation as he navigated through clouds and fog-covered terrain on the January 26, 2020, flight from Orange County to Camarillo.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Zobayan was flying under visual flight rules, but “the pilot continued his flight in the clouds.” Zobayan was “legally prohibited” from flying through the cloud cover, but he did so anyway, Sunwalt said.

The Sikorsky helicopter was not in a controlled flight pattern when it crashed into the hill near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at 9.45am.

NTSB member Michael Graham said Zobayan ignored his training, adding that as long as the helicopters continue to fly in the clouds while using visual flight rules, “a certain percentage will not come out alive.”

Despite earlier NTSB recommendations that helicopters be equipped with flight recorders and anti-collision voices, the Sikorsky that Bryant was flying on did not have such equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration did not require such features on the helicopter, nor did it require a safety management system.

Investigator Bill English told the council that Zobayan had informed air traffic control that he was “climbing 4,000 feet” to get above the clouds. But English said the pilot was experiencing spatial disorientation because the helicopter banked to the left, away from Freeway 101, while communicating with the controller that he had descended.

Zoboyan misperceived the altitude and acceleration and suffered what is called a somatogravic delusion, according to Dr. Dujuan Sevillian. He said accelerating the helicopter could cause a pilot to sense the plane was climbing when it wasn’t.

“Our inner ear can give us a false sense of direction,” Sevillian said, noting that a lack of visual cues while surrounded by clouds makes the problem worse and the pilot suffers from what is called “Inclinations”.