The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Everybody was hurting along with us’
Kobe and Gianna Bryant
Kobe Bryant was on his way to coach his daughter’s basketball game.
Bryant, the retired Lakers basketball star, died in the helicopter crash, along with his 13-yearold daughter, Gianna.
Gianna, who went by the nickname “Gigi,” was a budding basketball star in her own right and was “hellbent” on playing for the University of Connecticut, and one day, in the WNBA, her father told The Los Angeles Times last year.
John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli
A college baseball coach died, along with his wife and daughter.
John Altobelli, 56, a longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College, a junior college in Costa Mesa, was among those who died in the crash.
“He truly personified what it means to be a baseball coach,” the college’s athletic director, Jason Kehler, said in a statement. “The passion that he put into the game, but more importantly his athletes, was second to none — he treated them like family.”
Altobelli’s wife, Keri, and daughter Alyssa also died in the crash, the college confirmed. Alyssa played on the same club team as
Gianna Bryant, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Sarah and Payton Chester
A mother and daughter were remembered as “full of mischief and laughter.”
Sarah and Payton Chester, a mother and daughter who lived in Orange County, also died in the crash, family and friends said.
Todd Schmidt, the principal of the elementary school that Payton had attended in Corona del Mar, confirmed the deaths on Facebook. The Chesters, he said, were among the “amazing families” at the school: “engaged, supportive, encouraging, and full of mischief and laughter.”
“While the world mourns the loss of a dynamic athlete and humanitarian, I mourn the loss of two people just as important,” he wrote. “Their impact was just as meaningful, their loss will be just as keenly felt, and our hearts are just as broken.”
On Instagram, Riley Chester said he had lost “the most amazing Mother and sister.” He posted a series of photographs as a tribute, including one that showed his sister at a basketball gym, smiling and laughing with Bryant.
Christina Mauser
A basketball coach known as the “Mother of Defense” was also killed.
Christina Mauser had been a basketball coach and physical education teacher at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar and had coached Gianna Bryant to a school championship in the fall of 2017.
Her husband, Matthew Mauser, who was also a coach of that team, confirmed her death.
“She was incredibly witty — funny like nobody you’ve ever met,” Mauser, who used to teach at the school and is a singer in a band, said on the “Today” show early Monday.
He said Bryant had hired Mauser to coach for a basketball team at his Mamba Academy and called her the “Mother of Defense” because she was so good at teaching zone defense to the eighth grade players.
Mauser said he had cuddled in bed with his children as they grieved, and that his 11-year-old daughter had said it was comforting to know that other people were mourning as well.
“We watched ‘SportsCenter’ for two seconds and everything was about how much everybody was mourning and hurting, and she said it was nice to know that everybody was hurting along with us,” he said. “And I know that sounds odd, but it still kind of helps.”
The Mausers coached the Harbor Day School eighth grade girls’ basketball team when it won its first championship in the fall of 2017, according to issues of Beacon, a biannual magazine run by the school. Gianna Bryant was one of two sixth graders on the team who were playing at a level two years ahead of their class, according to the publication.
Ara Zobayan
A pilot on board had at least 20 years of experience.
Ara Zobayan, a pilot, was also among those who died in the crash, according to friends and colleagues.
Zobayan, of Huntington Beach, was a commercial helicopter pilot and certified flight instructor, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. He had been flying aircraft in Southern California for 20 years, records showed. He worked as a helicopter instructor for Group 3 Aviation in Van Nuys, and the company has posted photos of numerous students he has trained to fly helicopters over the years.
One of Zobayan’s flight students, Darren Kemp, told The Los Angeles Times that his teacher had been Bryant’s private pilot.
“He doesn’t let anyone else fly him around but Ara,” he said.