The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
» Latest on the crash investigation, plus a look at the other victims,
Tournament at Mamba Academy comes to halt after news of tragedy.
CALABASAS, CALIF. — Coroner’s officials worked to recover victims’ remains Monday from the hillside outside Los Angeles where a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed in weather so foggy that local police departments had grounded their own choppers.
About 20 investigators were on the scene, where everyone aboard was killed Sunday morning in a wreck that left debris scattered over an area the size of a football field.
The accident generated an outpouring of grief and shock around the world over the sudden loss of the all-time basketball great who spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Thousands of fans, many wearing Bryant jerseys and chanting his name, gathered outside the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, home of the Lakers and site of Sunday’s Grammy Awards, where Bryant was honored.
The 41-year-old Bryant, who perished with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was one of the game’s most popular players, an 18-time All-Star who helped lead the Lakers to five NBA championships.
The cause of the crash was unknown, but conditions at the time were such that the Los Angeles Police Department and the county sheriff ’s department grounded their helicopters.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas, said the rugged terrain complicated efforts to recover the remains. He estimated it would take at least a couple of days to complete the task.
Three bodies were recovered Sunday afternoon before darkness forced the search to be suspended, the coroner’s office said.
The Sikorsky S-76 went down in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Authorities did not say where Bryant was going, but the helicopter appeared headed in the direction of his youth sports academy in nearby Thousand Oaks, which was holding a basketball tournament Sunday in which Bryant’s daughter, known as GiGi, was to compete.
Bryant’s helicopter left Santa Ana in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, shortly after 9 a.m., heading north and then west. Air traffic controllers noted poor visibility around Burbank to the north and Van Nuys to the northwest. The aircraft crashed around 9:45 a.m. at about 1,400 feet, according to data from Flightradar24.
When it struck the ground, the helicopter was flying at about 160 knots (184 mph) and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute, the data showed.
KBOI-TV in Boise, Idaho, reported that a girls team that was to have played against GiGi Bryant’s squad returned home Sunday night after learning of the fatal crash during the tournament at Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy.
“All of a sudden the games just stopped, the whole facility went silent,” George Rodriguez, coach of the Treasure Valley Hoop Dreams team, told the station. “We heard some girls screaming. Nobody really quite knew what was going on until the news started to break ground and the message got around.”