NBA star’s copter was flying low in foggy weather
LOS ANGELES – The pilot of the helicopter that crashed, killing all nine aboard, including Kobe Bryant, radioed that he was climbing to 2,300 feet to avoid a cloud layer before making a descending left turn and crashing into a mountainside, federal investigators said Monday.
The copter smashed into rugged terrain in Calabasas, California, with such force that it left a crater and hurtled the fuselage down the other side of the hill, the National Transportation Safety Board said in giving a preliminary look at the inquiry into Sunday’s accident in foggy conditions.
Visibility was so poor Sunday morning that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Los Angeles Police departments had grounded their choppers. Asked whether fog might be the cause, NTSB Board Member Jennifer Homendy said only that “that’s part of our investigation.”
An air traffic controller told the pilot of the helicopter with Bryant aboard shortly before the crash that he was flying below the level needed to be able to lend assistance with tracking, the NTSB said. The pilot was flying under
flight rules that allowed him to navigate visually in conditions that were less than what would be the normal minimum, the recordings indicate. There was no mayday call.
“It seemed like very routine communication,” said Gary Robb, an attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, who specializes in helicopter litigation.
Yet when Bryant’s helicopter took off from John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:06 a.m. PST, visibility on the ground was about 3 or 4 miles, and the lowest overcast cloud layer was only 1,000 to 1,500 feet above ground, according to weather.com meteorologist Brian Donegan.
Investigators will review flight records and collect data from the helicopter’s operator, Homendy said.
Gathering evidence and recovering the bodies will be difficult. The chopper crashed in rugged terrain, and roads to access the site have been flooded with onlookers, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Recovery and identification of the nine victims is expected to be completed over the next few days, said Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner Jonathan Lucas.
The pilot, Ara Zobaya, was licensed commercially to fly helicopters on both visual and instrument flights, Federal Aviation Administration records show. He had 8,200 hours of flight time as of July. He was also licensed as a helicopter flight instructor for normal and instrument flights, as well as a ground instructor for instrument flying.
Homendy said the helicopter carried no flight data recorder.
The helicopter is considered a top-ofthe-line craft for corporate travel. President Donald Trump’s companies have owned them, government records show.
The model has a good safety record, said Shawn Coyle, a helicopter pilot and expert witness on accidents. NTSB reports list eight accidents that involved Sikorsky S-76Bs, including two that resulted in 12 deaths total. The fatal accidents didn’t appear to involve mechanical problems but rather visibility.
“Why they would be flying in bad weather’s got to be in question,” Coyle said.