What caused the Kobe’s crash? Investigators are about to reveal answers
LOS ANGELES — Why did the helicopter carrying Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others crash into a fog-covered hillside in Calabasas a year ago, killing all on board?
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday will make a probable cause finding and give recommendations to those who regulate the sky to avoid a repeat of the Jan. 26, 2020, crash. The deadly crash not only unleashed a tidal wave of grief but a plethora of lawsuits and congressional efforts to legislate for better helicopter safety.
In the year since, Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow and Gianna’s mother, and other passengers’ families have in court accused pilot Ara Zobayan and Island Express of flying in dangerous weather conditions. The helicopter operator has in turn pointed the finger at the air traffic controllers and at the weather as an act of God.
The more than 1,700 pages of investigative documents that examine all aspects of the crash of the chopper, however, strengthened a widely held view among helicopter experts that the pilot may have become disoriented while he navigated through fog-covered terrain on the Sunday morning flight from Orange County to Camarillo. There were no signs of mechanical failure on the flight carrying parents, coaches and players to a youth basketball game at Bryant’s then Mamba Academy.
Zobayan told air traffic control they were “climbing” to 4,000 feet when in reality the aircraft was descending. The NTSB’s aircraft performance study said the helicopter banked left and away from the 101 Freeway while communicating with the controller. According to the study, the pilot “could have misperceived both pitch and roll angles,” according to the NTSB documents.
“When a pilot misperceives altitude and acceleration it is known as the ‘somatogravic illusion’ and can cause spatial disorientation,” the report said. In other words, acceleration could cause a pilot to sense his helicopter was climbing when it was not.