‘Pilot wasn’t allowed to fly into clouds’

The pilot in the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others was “legally prohibited” from flying into clouds but did so anyway, the US National Transportation Safety Board’s chairman said on Tuesday. Pilot Ara Zobayan told air traffic controllers that his helicopter was climbing out of heavy clouds when in fact it was descending immediately before slamming into a hillside near the town of Calabasas. NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said the pilot was “flying under visual flight orders which legally prohibited him from penetrating the clouds” but he continued into clouds. The board “will discuss whether the pilot faced pressure to complete the flight...and what actions could he have taken to avoid flying into the clouds?” Sumwalt said.

NEW DELHI: As many as seven samples of bird droppings collected from the Delhi zoo have tested positive for bird flu. A brown fish owl, which had died at the zoo in January, had also tested positive for avian influenza, but since then, no other case was reported from the zoo until now.

Ramesh Pandey, director, National Zoological Park, on Tuesday said seven serological samples of bird droppings were collected from four different parts of the zoo, frequented by birds, earlier this month.

“These samples were sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, on February 3 for testing. All samples are positive for the avian influenza virus,” Pandey said.

The zoo director said all safety measures and protocols set by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), the Union ministry of environment forests and climate change (MOEFCC), and Delhi’s animal husbandry department to prevent the spread of avian flu are being strictly adhered to by the zoo.

“As per protocols, the surveillance will continue and samples collected would be sent for further serological examinations. The Delhi zoo is already closed and will continue to remain so until further orders,” Pandey said.