[ad_1]
It has been a year since the devastating helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others on board.
On the anniversary of the NBA icon’s death, the cause of the tragedy is still a mystery – but it may not be for long.
The National Transportation Safety Board next month will hold a virtual hearing to determine the probable cause of the crash.
“The ‘probable cause’ is not to blame – it’s more the most likely scenario that caused the crash,” Anthony Brickhouse, a former NTSB investigator, told The Post on Monday.
The NTSB has already ruled out an engine and mechanical failure on the doomed helicopter and, in May, released more than 1,800 pages of evidence gathered during its investigation.
“The NTSB takes all of this data and analyzes it,” Brickhouse said.
“They look at the human element, they look at the machine – so the helicopter itself – and they look at the environment in which the helicopter was actually operating.
“I didn’t see anything to suggest that something mechanical went wrong with the helicopter,” Brickouse continued. “So what you do is focus on the human element and the environmental element.”
“You put this puzzle together. You overwrite this information.
“That’s what we’re going to get on February 9,” the day of the hearing.
In the meantime, here’s what we know about the crash so far:
The flight:
On Sunday, January 26, 2020, at around 9:06 a.m., Bryant, 41, his daughter and six other passengers took off in a Sikorsky S-76B twin-engine aircraft from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.
The legendary Los Angeles Laker was heading to a youth basketball tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, about 85 miles away.
Others on board included assistant basketball coach Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton, and baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa.
About 15 minutes after take-off on a cloudy day, pilot Ara Zobayan – who was employed by Island Express Helicopters and had previously flown Bryant – asked Burbank Airport air traffic controllers for permission to enter his airspace.
Due to the poor visibility, Zobayan had to request what is called the “special VFR” permission to fly, even in the conditions.
After circling for about 11 minutes due to air traffic, the helicopter was granted permission to enter Burbank airspace and then continued to move north toward Van Nuys Airport.
The crash:
The pilot told air traffic controllers at around 9.44 am that he was “climbing” to 4000 feet to avoid a cloud layer.
In fact, the helicopter climbed slightly before turning sharply to the left and descending rapidly – crashing into a hillside at around 9.45 a.m.
According to the NTSB, the pilot “could have misperceived the pitch and roll angles,” becoming spatially disoriented and sensing that his plane was climbing when it was not.
“When a pilot misperceives altitude and acceleration, it’s called ‘the somatogravic illusion’ and can cause spatial disorientation,” the preliminary report said.
Brickhouse explained, “When you have clear skies and good visibility, you can see what you need to see.
“But unfortunately when you’re in the clouds, sometimes physiologically, your brain, depending on your inner ear, you’re a little confused.”
“We’ve seen it in crashes in the past,” he added, “where pilots find themselves in these conditions and they have problems.”
Weather:
The weather on the day of the crash was another fact investigators looked into – with evidence compiled into a 394-page weather report.
Videos and photos “show fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltops,” the report notes, adding that Zobayan struggled with a “low cloud ceiling”.
Lawsuits brought by Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and the families of the other victims argued that Zobayan should not have flown under the conditions.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Police Department had grounded their fleets that day because of fog and low clouds.
The helicopter:
The ill-fated helicopter, meanwhile, had a strong safety record and had even transported Bryant before – including after his last Lakers game in 2016.
“Nothing in the history of this model catches my attention as being negative,” Brickhouse said.
However, the helicopter did not have a “black box,” or flight recorder, or TAWS, a terrain detection system that alerts pilots when they fly too close to the ground.
It is needed in medical helicopters but not in commercial helicopters like the one used by Bryant, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At the February 9 hearing, the NTSB will also make recommendations “to try to prevent a similar event from happening again in the future,” Brickhouse said.
“I’m curious as to what will be the probable cause, what will be the contributing factors and what will happen to these recommendations.”
[ad_2]
Source link