Coroner’s reports

The pilot flying Kobe Bryant and eight others to a youth basketball tournament did not have alcohol or drugs in his system, and all nine suffered immediately fatal injuries when their helicopter slammed into a hillside outside Los Angeles in January, according to reports by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office released Friday. The crash that killed the 41year-old retired Los Angeles Lakers star, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, pilot Ara Zobayan and the others is considered accidental.

Bryant was headed from his Orange County home to his daughter’s tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks on the morning of Jan. 26. The group, which included one of his daughter’s coaches and two of her teammates, encountered thick fog in the San Fernando Valley. Zobayan, an experienced pilot who often flew Bryant, climbed sharply and had nearly succeeded breaking through the clouds when the craft took an abrupt left turn and plunged into the grassy, oak-studded hills below.

When it struck the ground, it was flying at about 185 mph and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute.

The National Transportation Safety Board has not concluded what caused the crash on the outskirts of Los Angeles County but said there was no sign of mechanical failure in the Sikorsky S-76. A final report is not expected for months. In addition to Bryant, his daughter and Zobayan, those killed were former University of Houston baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa; Christina Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter’s basketball team; and Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton.