From what I’ve heard, he, his daughter, a teammate of hers, and that teammate’s parent were among the nine passengers.
They were going to an away game.
That part really got me.
It reminds you how unpredictable life is, you never know what can happen.
I’m still having a difficult time processing all of this. I know folks die everyday, but this one hurts. Rest easy Kobe, Gianna and the other passengers onboard.
#Mamba824
#Legend
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What was the helicopter doing flying in the fog? Why not take a car?
Kobe for his entire career would take a Helicopter to and from home games and practice. In this instance he was taking one from Newport Beach to Thousand Oaks it seems. Much much quicker way to travel due to LA traffic… although I question why he would need to skip LA traffic on a Sunday? Still probably saved almost an hour.
Posted on Twitter, video clip of him very recently, with Jimmy Kimmel I think, talking about how much he loves using his helicopter.
From reports it seems the helicopter pilot could not see a thing and flew into the side of a mountain as a result. Why would a pilot fly into that? Apparently even the LAPD heli was grounded. I hope Kobe didn’t pressure his pilot into flying into those conditions. It seems so senseless and preventable.
Who knows…i’m sure we will find out in a few days.
He had 2 girls with him, I doubt he would pressure a pilot. A fog bank can roll in quickly, we’ve all experienced that.
From local reports… the Pilot had a license to fly in low visibility environments and the helicopter was certify to fly in those conditions as well.
FAA would have had to clear them to fly… so no way Kobe can pressure the pilot to do something against the FAA
It is solely at the pilots discretion to choose to fly. The NTSBs report will be very valuable.
From the ATC tapes and the location of the crash site it seems the pilot was not following the rules. All preliminary, but if accepted seems poor judgement or authority on the part of the pilot. We know there was a delay as the helicopter was kept in a holding pattern for some minutes. NTSB findings regarding to human factors is going to be sad.
Breaking what rules? He would of had authorization to fly special VFR, if they should have is another question, but it’s not breaking any rules.
It’s all early - but sounds like he was flying the clouds (fog) and should not have been. I dunno, should page our resident pilot, but it sounds like he’s requesting SVFR when ATC is telling it’s IFR all around - was there no IFR plan? It’s not clear to me, but it seems that IFR would require two pilots in this craft, not the one and gets back to the SVFR request and possibly flying into something he should not, at apparently great speed after a holding delay. Maybe the heli had a mechanical fault, but it feels like there’s go-itis combo’d with flying into stuff the pilot should have not. If not mechanical and depending on the visibility (IFR conditions all around the vicinity and the LAPD was grounded) the questions are why the pilot made whatever decisions he did. Speculation on my part and I am no expert, but feels like avoidable and all the more tragic. RIP everyone.
RIP Kobe Bryant. You were a wonderful athlete and an even better person, who did a lot with your money to help your community. You will truly be missed.
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I do think it will come down to pilot error. It appears that he flew into clouds while under special VFR, which is very serious, and then handled it incorrectly. Why they did not switch to IFR early on, since the helicopter was well equipped, is the big question.
Sadly two children died in the crash. Kobe friend his wife and daughter were also aboard.
From what I gathered the LAPD’s air support division choppers were grounded due to fog until later Sunday afternoon. In their own words the weather conditions did not meet their minimum standards to fly. This accident happened before noon if I am not mistaken?
It’s most likely a weather related accident. Going by the stretched out debris field it appears the chopper was going very fast on impact. Somewhere around 160mph. Definitely very sad if true.
I’m hearing 9 in total.
you are correct. I am posting an article that is stating that very same sentiment.
In the article a former pilot of Kobe, said the weather was not good at all and it appears the helicopter was traveling very fast.
