Pilot tried to climb to avoid clouds
Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
CALABASAS, CALIF.
The pilot of the helicopter that crashed near Los Angeles, killing former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others, told air-traffic controllers in his last radio message that he was climbing to avoid a cloud layer before plunging more than 1,000 feet into a hillside, an investigator said Monday.
The pilot had asked for and received special clearance to fly in heavy fog just minutes before Sunday’s crash, said Jennifer Homendy, of the National Transportation Safety Board, which went to the crash scene Monday to collect evidence.
The pilot then asked for air-traffic controllers to provide “flight following” aide but was told the craft was too low, Homendy said.
About four minutes later, “the pilot advised they were climbing to avoid a cloud layer,” she said. “When
ATC asked what the pilot planned to do, there was no reply. Radar data indicates the helicopter climbed to 2,300 feet and then began a left descending turn. Last radar contact was around 9:45 a.m. and is consistent with the accident location.”
Coroner’s officials worked to recover victims’ remains Monday. Crews recovered three bodies on Sunday.
The Sikorsky S-76 went down Sunday morning, killing the retired athlete along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and everyone else aboard.
Some experts raised questions of whether the helicopter should have even been flying. The weather was so foggy that the Los Angeles Police Department and the county sheriff’s department had grounded their own choppers.
The pilot was identified as
Ara Zobayan. Several aviation experts said it is not uncommon for helicopter pilots to be given such permission, though some thought it unusual that it would be granted in airspace as busy as that over Los Angeles.
But Kurt Deetz, who flew for Bryant dozens of times in the same chopper that went down, said permission is often granted in the area.
“It happened all the time in the winter months in L.A.,” Deetz said. “You get fog.”
Air-traffic controllers noted poor visibility around Burbank to the north and Van Nuys to the northwest. At one point, the controllers instructed the chopper to circle because of planes in the area before proceeding.
When it struck the ground, the helicopter was flying at about 184 mph and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute, according to data from Flightradar24.
Randy Waldman, a helicopter instructor who teaches at the nearby Van Nuys airport, said its likely the pilot got disoriented in the fog and the helicopter went into a fatal dive.
“It’s a common thing that happens in airplanes and helicopters with people flying with poor visibility,” Waldman said. “If you’re flying visually, if you get caught in a situation where you can’t see out the windshield, the life expectancy of the pilot and the aircraft is maybe 10, 15 seconds, and it happens all the time, and it’s really a shame.”
Bryant had been known since his playing days for taking helicopters instead of braving the notoriously snarled Los Angeles traffic. “I’m not going into L.A. without the Mamba chopper,” he joked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in a 2018 interview, referring to his own nickname, Black Mamba.