USA TODAY International Edition
NBA star’s copter was flying low in foggy weather
The federal investigation of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others began to unfold Monday as experts examined the chopper’s maintenance history and questioned why the pilot flew in foggy conditions.
Visibility was so poor Sunday morning that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’ s and Los Angeles Police departments had grounded their choppers.
An air traffic controller told the pilot of the helicopter with Bryant aboard shortly before the crash that he was flying below the level needed to be able to lend assistance with tracking, although there was no acknowledgment. The pilot was flying under flight rules that allowed him to navigate visually in conditions that were less than what would be the normal minimum, the recordings indicate. There was no mayday call.
“It seemed like very routine communication,” said Gary Robb, an attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, who specializes in helicopter litigation.
Yet when Bryant’s helicopter took off from John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9: 06 a. m. PST, visibility on the ground was about 3 or 4 miles, and the lowest overcast cloud layer was only
1,000 to 1,500 feet above ground, according to weather. com meteorologist Brian Donegan.
Investigators will review flight records and collect data from the helicopter’s operator to help determine why it slammed into a hillside near Malibu, National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy said.
Gathering evidence and recovering the bodies will be difficult. The chopper crashed in rugged terrain, and roads to access the site have been flooded with onlookers, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Recovery of the bodies is expected to be completed over the next few days, said Los Angeles County Medical Examiner- Coroner Jonathan Lucas. Bryant was aboard with his daughter, Gianna; John Altobelli, head baseball coach at Orange Coast College; and his wife and daughter, Keri and Alyssa. Girls basketball coach Christina Mauser was also among the victims, said Katrina Foley, mayor of Costa Mesa, California. Mauser was an assistant coach to Bryant in youth basketball.
The wreckage of the Sikorsky S- 76B covered 100 yards and smoked for hours.
The helicopter was manufactured in 1991, Federal Aviation Administration records show. Since 2015, it has been owned by Island Express Holding Corp., based in Van Nuys, California, according to records by PriJet, a Massachusetts company that tracks the costs for private jets and other aircraft. From 2007 to 2015, the copter was part of the air fleet for the Illinois state government, the records show.
The model has a good safety record, said Shawn Coyle, an experienced helicopter pilot and expert witness on accidents. NTSB final reports list eight accidents that involved Sikorsky S- 76B copters, including two that resulted in a combined 12 fatalities. The fatal accidents didn’t appear to involve mechanical problems but rather visibility.
“Why they would be flying in bad weather’s got to be in question,” Coyle said.
The NTSB will likely release a preliminary report within about 10 days.