Pilot in Kobe Bryant helicopter crash pushed limits on bad weather flight rules, says NTSB

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The comments were made at a meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board set to vote on an official cause for the Jan. 26, 2020 crash that killed Bryant, his daughter, the pilot and six others.

The meeting, still underway on Tuesday morning, will lay out possible long-term safety recommendations in the wake of the crash, including more strident calls for increased safety training for helicopter pilots on how to d ‘avoid inadvertently flying in the clouds.

“We use the term accident rather than accident,” said NTSB vice president Bruce Landsberg. “An accident (is) just something unforeseen, unpredictable, if you will. Unfortunately this was not the case. “

During the meeting, investigators said Island Express pilot Ara Zobayan may have felt pressured to play for a high profile client and continued to fly in deteriorating weather conditions.

They said he climbed into what witnesses described as a “wall of clouds”, possibly became disoriented and unconsciously turned into a hill obscured by the clouds which he knew was. was there.

“It’s not like … the pilot was flying, didn’t know where the hills are, and got on the side of a hill wrong,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.

Investigators said the helicopter was equipped to fly in the clouds, with the pilot operating only with reference to instruments – known as instrument flight rules or IFRs – but the charter company Island Express’s agreement with the FAA only allowed flights where the pilot could maintain visual contact with the ground, known as Visual Flight Rules or VFR.

“It would appear that these flights should have been operated under IFR,” Sumwalt said.

The 9 people on board died

The helicopter crashed into hilly terrain in foggy conditions in Calabasas. Passengers were heading from Orange County to Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks for a youth basketball game in which Kobe Bryant was to coach and Gianna and two others on board were to play.
Young athletes, baseball coach and mothers. What we know about others in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant

In addition to Bryant, 41, and Gianna, 13, the crash claimed the lives of teammates Payton Chester, 13, and Alyssa Altobelli, 14; Payton’s mother, Sarah Chester, 45; Alyssa’s parents, Keri Altobelli, 46, and John Altobelli, 56; assistant coach Christina Mauser, 38; and pilot Zobayan, 50.

All nine people on board died of blunt trauma and the mode of death was accidental, according to a coroner’s office.

Bryant, an 18-year-old 41-year-old All Star who won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, had made the trip to Thousand Oaks several times as an academy coach.

The pilot appeared disoriented in the fog, according to previous documents

Weather and visibility were a concern before the flight, and Zobayan discussed the plan to move forward in a group text before the trip, show NTSB documents released last year. Visibility was so low that morning that the Los Angeles Police Department had decided to ground its helicopters.
During the trip, the pilot appeared to be disoriented in the fog, according to documents released last year by the NTSB.
During the flight, Zobayan told a controller in a final communication that he would climb to 4,000 feet to pass above the clouds, the NTSB reported last year.
Radar showed that at around 9.45 a.m., the craft climbed to about 2,300 feet above sea level and turned left, before descending at a rapid rate. it fell off the radar about 1,200 feet, near the crash site, the NTSB had said.

The first 911 call for the theft arrived at 9:47 a.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.

Here's what happened in the minutes leading up to Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash

The helicopter crashed into a hill in Calabasas, and parts were found scattered around an area that extended up to 600 feet, the NTSB said days after the incident.

In a February 2020 NTSB update on the crash investigation, the board said there was no evidence of engine failure. Later that month, he released a preliminary report highlighting the overcast weather in the region that day.
Bryant’s widow Vanessa has sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Villanueva over the crash of eight deputies taking photos of the scene and the deceased victims. A leak from the department led to TMZ breaking the news and fans flocked to the site.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an invasion of privacy bill in September that would prohibit first responders from sharing photos of a person who died at a crime scene “for any purpose other than ‘an official law enforcement goal’.

Under the new Kobe Bryant Act, which came into effect this year, a first responder who is convicted of the felony can be fined up to $ 1,000 per offense.

CNN’s Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

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