Preliminary report on helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant is released; it does not say the cause
A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board was released Friday on the Calabasas crash that ended the life of Kobe Bryant and eight others, but the report did not give any additional insight into what caused the crash.
The update came as authorities continue to investigate why the Sikorsky S-76B crashed 40 minutes after it departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:06 a.m. on Jan. 26. The pilot circled the Glendale area, then flew west for Camarillo Airport. Amid the thick fog, the chopper hit the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains and caught fire, killing everyone on board.
The report does say that visibility at the airport, 14 miles from the crash site, was 2.5 miles.
Complete coverage: Kobe Bryant crash
NTSB authorities have said a full review of the crash could take up to 18 months. Preliminary reports often do not include a lot of new information.
On Feb. 7, NTSB officials released an 11-page update detailing the conditions that they found on scene and some of the initial findings, including the conclusion that the engine did not appear to have failed.
That report says that the helicopter’s descent increased to over 4,000 feet per minute and hit the ground at just over 184 miles per hour.
In addition to Bryant and his daughter Gianna, also killed were Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their basketball-playing daughter Alyssa. Also, mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester, Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan died. They were headed for a tournament at Bryant’s youth facility in Thousand Oaks.
During the flight, Zobayan requested special visual flight rules, which lets a pilot fly in weather worse than allowed under standard visual flight rules.
The radio communications between the Burbank airport tower and chopper shows the pilot requested “flight following” which is flying with monitoring from air traffic control. The tower can be heard telling Zobayan that the aircraft was too low before the conversation ended.
In the days following the crash, theories swirled about what could have caused the aircraft to slam into the hillside or what could have prevented it.
Questions arose about the absence of a terrain warning system, which the helicopter was not required to have. The system gives detailed visuals of surrounding terrain and triggers alerts.
But a recurring fact was the presence of the dense fog that Sunday morning.
A witness on a bike trail told investigators that the area was surrounded by mist when he heard the helicopter. The sound got louder and he saw the blue and white aircraft emerge from the clouds before hitting the ground.
Since then memorials for the basketball star and other passengers have been held all over Southern California. On Friday, the Lakers announced how people could get tickets to the highly anticipated Kobe Bryant memorial at the Staples Center.