EXPERTS: PILOT IN KOBE BRYANT CRASH LIKELY WAS LOST IN FOG
CALABASAS, Calif. — The pilot of the helicopter that crashed near Los Angeles, killing former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others, told air traffic controllers in his last radio message that he was climbing to avoid a cloud layer before plunging more than 1,000 feet into a hillside, an accident investigator said.
Radar indicated the helicopter reached a height of 2,300 feet Sunday morning before descending, and the wreckage was found at 1,085 feet, Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said during a news conference Monday afternoon.
NTSB investigators went to the crash site Monday to collect evidence.
“The debris field is pretty extensive,” Homendy said.
Some experts suggested that the pilot, identified as Ara Zobayan, might have gotten disoriented because of fog.
“We look at man, machine and the environment,” Homendy said. “And weather is just a small portion of that.”
The crash of the Sikorsky S-76 killed Bryant along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and everyone else aboard. Those included college baseball coach John Altobelli, 56; his wife, Keri; and daughter, Alyssa, who played on the same basketball team as Bryant’s daughter; and Christina Mauser, a girls’ basketball coach at an elementary school. Payton Chester, a 13-year-old member of the basketball team, and her mother Sarah also died on the flight, Payton’s grandmother Catherine George told KNBC-4 in Los Angeles.
Randy Waldman, a helicopter flight instructor, said a disoriented pilot might have only moments to avoid a fatal dive.
“If you’re flying visually, if you get caught in a situation where you can’t see out the windshield, the life expectancy of the pilot and the aircraft is maybe 10, 15 seconds, and it happens all the time, and it’s really a shame,” Waldman said.
Some experts raised questions of whether the helicopter should have even been flying in heavy fog. Several aviation experts said it is not uncommon for helicopter pilots to be given such permission.
“A lot of times somebody who’s doing it for a living is pressured to get their client
to where they have to go,” Waldman said. “They take chances that maybe they shouldn’t take.”
Kurt Deetz, who flew for Bryant dozens of times in the same chopper that went down, said permission is often granted in the area.
“It happened all the time in the winter months in L.A.,” Deetz said. “You get fog.”
Peter and Claudia Lowry, owners of Group 3 Aviation in Los Angeles, said Zobayan previously worked there. “Ara worked hard in other businesses to save enough money to pay for training,” they said in a Facebook post. “Flying was his life’s passion.”