Report: Helicopter wreckage in crash that killed Kobe Bryant and 8 others is moved to Arizona
Wreckage from the Calabasas helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others on Sunday has been transported from the site to a facility in Phoenix for further analysis, according to a news report.
Pieces of the helicopter, including the fuselage, tail and rotor, which separated from each other on impact when the aircraft slammed into a hill, were airlifted from the crash site and placed on the back of a flatbed truck, Fox 10 in Phoenix reported.
The wreckage was then transported to an aircraft yard in Phoenix where the National Transportation Safety Board analyzes debris collected from transportation accidents.
The local television station’s helicopter captured images of the wreckage, some of it covered with a tarp and other parts visible, as it was taken to the facility.
The NTSB would not confirm where the wreckage was transported, saying only that it “will be taken to an undisclosed, secure facility outside the area,” spokesman Keith Holloway said.
“NTSB does not disclose the location of where evidence of an ongoing investigation is being taken or any other specifics regarding the evidence that has been removed from an accident site,” he said.
The NTSB and other agencies were wrapping up their work at the site of the crash Thursday. For several days, they have been picking through wreckage and debris at the site scattered over a nearly football-field sized area of brush and steep terrain.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department, which has been advising officials on the ground of the crash about how to maneuver in the difficult terrain, as well as standing by to assist with moving the wreckage, was no longer at the site, said Ian Conley, a fire department spokesman said Thursday.
The county’s hazmat response team was still there, he said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department still has a perimeter set up, according to officials at the Lost Hills/Malibu station
All nine victims of the crash were identified Wednesday. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office first named Bryant and three other victims, John Altobelli, 56, Sarah Chester, 45, and the helicopter’s pilot Ara Zobayan, 49.
Another five victims were identified later that day through DNA analysis. Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, 13, was among them. Also named were her two club basketball team teammates, Payton Chester, 13, and Alyssa Altobelli, 14.
Altobelli’s mother, Keri Altobelli, 46, and Christina Mauser, 38, an assistant girl’s basketball coach, also were identified late Wednesday.
The coroner’s office said full body examinations of all of the victims were completed on Tuesday.
The cause of death for all was blunt force trauma. Coroner’s officials classified the manner of death as an accident.
That does not mean the NTSB investigation into why the crash occurred is over — only the federal investigators are able to say what led to the crash.
Holloway said most NTSB investigations can take between one and two years.
On Wednesday, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy said the Sikorsky helicopter carrying all eight passengers and Zobayan, the pilot, was not equipped with terrain-avoidance equipment.
Homendy said the NTSB made a previous recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration to require all civilian aircraft be equipped with this technology, which could help them avoid crashing into the ground. But the FAA has not acted on that recommendation, she said.