41, Dead – NBA superstar – Kobe Bryant

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said in a statement posted on its website that three bodies had been recovered from the debris field and taken to a forensic science center for identification. The search continues for more remains.

Witnesses recounted thick fog over the foothills where the helicopter went down. According to reports, the fog was so bad that both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department grounded their helicopter fleets. National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy: “It was a pretty devastating accident scene”.

Jennifer Homendy: “We take a broad look at everything in an investigation – man, machine and the environment. And weather is just a small portion of that”.  Air traffic controller recordings have shown that the pilot of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter was flying too low to be monitored in fog.

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official said that a pilot “does not get a general, or blanket, clearance from the FAA to fly in these conditions. A pilot is responsible for determining whether it is safe to fly in current and expected conditions.”

The pilot apparently requested “flight following,” or constant tracking from controllers, but was informed he was flying too low to be picked up by air traffic control radar. It is unclear if the pilot heard the comment. Air traffic controller message for pilot of the helicopter: “Two echo x-ray, you’re still too low level for flight following at this time”. Gary Robb, an aviation lawyer and author of the book – Helicopter Crash Litigation said: “The dialogue between the pilot and air traffic control leads me to believe … he kept wanting to go lower and lower, beneath the fog and ceiling, as we call it, and that could have led him to fly so low that he flew into the mountain”

Gary Robb: The pilot, in his transmissions, “was calm and controlled the whole time,” calling the communications “extremely normal and routine”. Experts have termed the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter, which Kobe and the others were on, “reliable” and a “generally safe” aircraft. Investigators, though, will have to consider mechanical failure. The NTSB confirmed that the twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B helicopter took off from John Wayne Airport in the Orange County city of Santa Ana on a flight destined for a regional airport about 80 miles to the northwest in the coastal town of Camarillo.

The helicopter crashed in the Santa Monica foothills on the outskirts of Calabasas, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The pilot and all eight passengers, including Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, perished in the fiery wreck. They were on their way to a girls’ basketball tournament at a sports academy where Bryant was to have coached his daughter’s team that day.

In addition to the Bryants (Kobe and Gianna), the crash devastated three other families, as they were on their way to a girls’ basketball tournament. A husband and wife with their 13-year-old daughter; a mother and her 13-year-old daughter; and a basketball coach, who was also a mother. The ninth victim was the pilot, Ara Zobayan, an experienced former flight instructor who was instrument-rated, or qualified to fly in fog.

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