No strong feelings for or against Kobe Bryant. I’m saddened that fathers and their daughters were killed.
I believe there were 2 moms killed also. 
Can’t type well at the moment. That’s even worse if the mothers were also killed. I hadn’t heard about any complete loss of families.
There are two sets of flight rules, VFR (visual flight rules) and IFR (instrument flight rules.) An instrument rating from the FAA is required to allow a pilot to fly in sub visual conditions. This pilot was instrument rated and the aircraft was equipped with the necessary IFR instruments. He also had thousands of flight hours logged in the aircraft type and had flown Kobe on this same route hundreds of times. I’m not saying that pilot error was not the cause, but speculation that he was doing something unnecessarily risking on this flight is completely unwarranted.
Yeah, 3 kids going to a basketball game, 2 moms and two dads. Very depressing.
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I personally think he was doing something that was approved, and not uncommon, but became disoriented when he encountered unexpected clouds/fog at low altitude around those hills. It looks like he thought he had cleared the hills and unknowingly circled back into them as he tried to fly down and get visual sight of the ground again.
Withstanding some medical issue this appears to be a controlled flight into terrain, and pilot error.
A lot of pros end up dead because their overconfidence overcame their humility. Maybe it was not the case here, but it’s not beyond possibility.
Imagining this but with the cloud encounter.
Sounds to me like he tried to get above the fog bank(his radio call) but inadvertently entered into but did not have an IFR clearance and tried to get VFR again. I heard today also he hit 30 feet from the top of the hill.
I see no reason why fog would have made him (being instrument qualified) become disoriented and cause turn severely off course to the left and drop so dramatically while gaining significant air speed. Without knowing anything else, my guess would be either a mechanical issue, instrument failure, or a sudden health (of the pilot) problem.
You need to read some of the commentary of experienced pilots on this crash.
It is very easy to become disoriented when you enter weather especially when it is unintentional with some dynamic movement like a steep climb. It is also being reported now that he was instrument qualified but company did not fly in instrument conditions so he might of had very little experience at it.
I have. They are speculating.
Could, but, might. Speculation.
Yes. Indeed you are
You are right. I am speculating that others are speculating. Why are you so hell bent to lay blame on the pilot when there are so many other plausible possibilities and the NTSB investigation has yet to determine (and won’t for some months) the cause?
Where is the speculation in that statement?
Hilarious! Please show where I ever blamed the pilot much less am “hell bent” on it. Its downright pathetic how you try to disenguinously attach positions to other posters like that
I am assuming that you are applying those possibilities to this specific incident. That makes it speculation.
No I responded to your comment
“I see no reason why fog would have made him (being instrument qualified) become disoriented and cause turn severely off course to the left and drop so dramatically while gaining significant air speed”
