Helicopter firm in Bryant crash awarded aid
Island Express, the charter company tied to the chopper involved in Kobe Bryant’s death, gets stimulus funds.
The charter company that operated the helicopter that crashed in January, killing Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, has received more than $600,000 through a federal program to support aviation industry payrolls in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
Island Express Helicopters got the payment May 1 through the CARES Act, according to Treasury Department records. The Long Beach company is one of 202 passenger air carriers of all sizes that have received payroll support through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in amounts of $5,900 to $5.8 billion.
Twenty-four of the companies, including Island Express, are based in California. The biggest in-state distribution — $26.9 million — went to Clay Lacy Aviation in Van Nuys. Thirteen of the companies received $1 million or more in aid.
A spokesman for Island Express declined to comment.
The company faces four wrongful death lawsuits in Los Angeles County Superior Court related to the crash.
The 1991 Sikorsky S-76B carrying Bryant slammed into a hillside in Calabasas in dense fog Jan. 26. The helicopter was en route to a youth basketball game at Bryant’s sports academy in Thousand Oaks.
In addition to Kobe and Gianna Bryant, John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; Payton and Sarah Chester; Christina Mauser, and pilot Ara Zobayan were also killed.
Vanessa Bryant sued in February on the same day as the public memorial service at Staples Center for her husband and daughter.
“Defendant Island Express Helicopters authorized, directed and/or permitted a flight with full knowledge that the subject helicopter was flying into unsafe weather conditions,” the lawsuit said.
In an answer to the complaint filed last week, attorneys for Island Express argued that the passengers knew the “particular dangers” of travel by helicopter and assumed them voluntarily. The filing described the crash as an “unavoidable accident.”
One of Bryant’s attorneys didn’t respond to a request for comment on the CARES Act funds.
Surviving members of the Altobelli, Chester and Mauser families have also sued the company.
Island Express suspended operations indefinitely after the crash. Its website, updated in early March, offered charter services once again.
“Your time is precious, with traffic congestion at its worst in CA, we can turn a two-hour taxi ride from LAX into a 12-minute flight,” the site said.
The company’s most recent Instagram post said in mid-April that it continued to offer daily flights to and from Catalina Island for “essential travel” and “we can’t wait until things get back to normal.”