As the sorrow surrounding Sunday’s fatal helicopter crash in Southern California turns from shock to the investigation, new details have shed light on what preceded the final moments before the accident that ended the lives of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his teenage daughter and seven others.
Authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) faced reporters and millions of mourners on Monday night to address questions and share new findings. While the NTSB, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will continue to gather information in advance of an official report for many months, the short-term findings have already helped paint a clearer picture of what doomed the helicopter.
On Monday, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy told reporters that the investigation had so far revealed that the privately owned Sikorsky S-76B helicopter had no black box on board, but the debris exploration did unearth an iPad loaded with the ForeFlight application.
“There wasn’t a black box and there isn’t a requirement to have a black box on there, so there was no CVR (cockpit voice recording), no FRD (flight data recorder),” Homendy said. “There was an iPad with ForeFlight, which is essentially for flight plans and weather briefings, the pilot uses in flight. We’ll be looking at other avionics on the aircraft to see what information we can gather and then we’re going to be looking for other electronics.”
Immediately after that, Homendy addressed the question of whether there was any chance for survival. She declined to directly answer the inquiry before the official final report, she called it a “pretty devastating accident scene.”
“There is an impact area on one of the hills and a piece of the tail is down the hill, on the left side of the hill,” Homendy said. “The fuselage is over on the other side of that hill and then the main rotor is about 100 yards beyond that. The debris field is about 500 to 600 feet.”
The most widely agreed-upon factor that led to the accident has been the thick fog that enveloped the Southern California area that morning.
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Webcams from the Calabasas area show how thick the fog was on the Sunday morning of the fatal helicopter crash that claimed Kobe Bryant’s life. (Via AlertWildfire.org) |
Webcam screenshots taken on Sunday morning from areas near the crash site in Calabasas depict the thick fog that shrouded the area where Bryant’s helicopter flew on the fateful morning of the flight. In fact, the NTSB issued an appeal to the public for help with better determining the weather conditions at the time of the crash.
“Speaking of weather, we have a request for the public. We are looking for photos of the weather in the area of the crash. If you have photos that can help us, again in the area of the crash, if you could send those photos to [email protected],” Homendy said.
Officials also confirmed earlier reports that radar data showed that the pilot, veteran flight instructor Ara Zobayan, was climbing several hundred feet right before the aircraft crashed into the hillside. Earlier audio releases indicate that air traffic controllers (ATC) were communicating with Zobayan that he needed to fly above the cloud ceiling for flight following.
“Approximately four minutes later, the pilot advised they were climbing to avoid a cloud layer,” Homendy said. “When ATC asked what the pilot planned to do, there was no reply.”
Homendy described “flight following” as radar assistance for pilots in order to avoid airspace traffic.
“When air traffic control said they were too low, it wasn’t that they were too low [to fly], it was that they were too low to provide flight following assistance,” Homendy said.
Worldwide vigils have spread throughout major cities from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, across continents, languages and have been impacting athletes across all different sports.
Similar memorials have poured out for the other eight victims of the accident, including Bryant’s daughter Gianna. Legendary baseball coach John Altobelli was on the flight along with his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa, one of Gianna’s basketball teammates. Another teammate, Payton Chester, was on the flight with her mother. The girls’ coach, Christina Mauser, and the pilot, Zobayan, perished as well.
Zobayan is remembered by his colleagues and students as a top-notch, savvy pilot. Zobayan held the chief pilot position at Island Express Helicopters.
“The pilot, Ara Zobayan, was our chief pilot. Ara has been with the company for over 10 years and has over 8,000 flight hours,” the company said in a statement. “We are working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to investigate the cause of the accident and we are grateful to the first responders and local authorities for their response to this unimaginable accident.”
According to The New York Times, a group of pilots gathered at Group 3 Aviation, a flight school were Zobayan, 50, learned to fly in 1998 and later worked as an instructor. They said they were flummoxed by news of the tragic accident.
Zobayan had been a personal pilot for Bryant for years and also provided flights for celebrities such as Kylie Jenner. Jenner had most recently flown with him in November for her niece’s third birthday party, she revealed in a post on Instagram.
“I still can’t believe this. That was the helicopter I would fly on from time to time with that pilot, Ara,” Jenner posted on Instagram. “He was such a nice man. Hold your loved ones close.”
Zobayan reportedly wanted to learn how to fly after taking a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon. He possessed the necessary certifications to fly under instrument meteorological conditions and taught other pilots who were working toward their own ratings.
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According to the FAA, he had no accidents or enforcement actions on his record. Pilots gathering at his memorial lauded him for his precise caution and intelligence. The accident, particularly amid the conditions, has baffled many of his friends, such as Kurt Deetz, who told the New York Times that Zobayan “knew the weather patterns” of the region well.
Deetz told The Los Angeles Times that Zaboyan was Bryant’s go-to pilot after Deetz left the company. One of those famous flights Zaboyan piloted for Bryant was to the legend’s final NBA game, against the Utah Jazz on April 16, 2016.
Deetz also disputed the notion that the Los Angeles Police Department’s decision to ground flights earlier that Sunday doesn’t mean private pilots would always have canceled their flights as well, as the LAPD is overly cautious, according to Deetz.
“We’ve all been there … I don’t care if you’ve got 100 hours or 10,000 hours. It can happen to anyone,” Deetz said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Speaking to the LA Times, Deetz said Zaboyan’s decision to continue flying through the conditions with such a high-profile passenger must have been a critical and difficult decision.
“Psychologically, that’s the hardest part,” Deetz said. “Biting the bullet and saying, ‘The weather’s crap, I have to turn back.’ It’s hard to accept the fact you can’t get the job done.”
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