Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the helicopter that crashed into a California hillside, killing retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, himself, and seven others, was disciplined for violating weather-related flight rules in 2015, according to records from the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
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FILE – In this Jan. 26, 2020, file photo, firefighters work the scene of a helicopter crash where former NBA star Kobe Bryant died, in Calabasas, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill,File) |
The records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act report that Zobayan was counseled by an FAA investigator when he broke the federal flight rules when he flew into busy airspace near Los Angeles International Airport on May 11, 2015, despite being ordered not to by air traffic control.
“There are no indications that this is a repeated incident and there are no signs that this incident is a trend with Mr. Zobayan,” the report said according to The Hill.
Zobayan was flying northbound in an AS350 chopper near the Hawthorne Airport and the 105 Freeway when he tried to get clearance to fly through the LAX airspace, according to the Los Angeles Times, but the tower told him that the airfield was reporting a cloud ceiling at least 1,000 feet above the ground and less than three miles of visibility.
Zobayan requested to continue under special Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which would grant him clearance to fly in weather conditions with less than the minimum visibility for regular visual flying, however when the tower denied his request, Zobayan backtracked and said that he could actually maintain VFR, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Zobayan entered the airspace without approval, violating FAA rules, according to the report.
“You can’t request special VFR and then they deny you and you say, ‘Oh wait a minute, actually I’m VFR’,” Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for Island Express Helicopters told the Los Angeles Times.
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Deetz went on to tell the Los Angeles Times that navigating around the controlled airspace near LAX would have added only five to ten minutes to the flight.
On the day Zobayan violated VFR, it was partly to mostly cloudy through the day, with winds up to 17 mph in the afternoon, according to the Los Angeles International Airport weather data.
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Former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna watch the U.S. national championships swimming meet Thursday, July 26, 2018, in Irvine, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) |
This news comes a few days before the Kobe’s and Gianna’s memorial on Feb. 24, 2020, a date that references both of their jersey numbers.
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