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- Everything we know - and what we don't - about the fatal helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and 7 others
Everything we know - and what we don't - about the fatal helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and 7 others
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gigi members of her basketball team, and their families boarded Bryant's private helicopter at Orange County's John Wayne Airport on Sunday morning.
The Bryants were likely coming from their home in Newport Beach, Orange County. Gigi went to the region's private Harbor Day School.
Christina Mauser, the school's girls basketball coach, was also on the helicopter.
Source: Business Insider
All nine people on the flight had been headed toward the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, where Bryant often coached his daughter.
Source: The New York Times
The helicopter was a Sikorsky S-76, which Bryant used to avoid traffic between his house and Los Angeles, as well as to help teammates get to doctors appointments.
The area had been grappling with intense fog at the time. It was so bad that the LAPD grounded all its own helicopters that morning.
YouTube star Jeffree Star also posted videos of dense fog around his nearby mansion shortly before the crash.
Source: Business Insider
The helicopter continued to ascend steadily, and at around 9:20 a.m. circled over Glendale for about 10 minutes. Around this time the helicopter pilot also called flight control authorities.
Glendale is around 40 miles as the crow flies from John Wayne Airport, and some 35 miles from Thousand Oaks, the helicopter's destination.
Source: FlightRadar24, Business Insider, TMZ
Around this time flight control authorities told the pilot he was flying "too low."
It's not entirely clear why the plane circled for so long — TMZ suggested that the pilot may have been waiting for the fog to clear.
Source: Business Insider, TMZ
At 9:40 a.m., somewhere over Granada Hills neighborhood, the helicopter changed path and turned toward the mountainous Thousand Oaks.
Minutes later — around 9:45 a.m. — the helicopter crashed into a hilly area in Thousand Oaks at around 1,700 feet. It had been flying at around 153 knots, or 176 miles per hour, at the time, FlightRadar24 said.
Source: FlightRadar24
Responders were called to the site at 9:47 a.m. The crash had ignited a brush fire within a quarter-acre radius, the LA Times reported.
The craft would have had about 800 pounds of fuel on board around that time, Kurt Deetz, a former pilot who had flown Bryant before, told the LA Times.
"That's enough to start a pretty big fire," Deetz told the newspaper.
Officials also shut down roads leading to the site because so many people were trying to approach the crash area.
The LA County coroner's office said Sunday night that recovery efforts could take at least two days due to the fog conditions.
Authorities have not formally identified any of the victims, but their identities have come out in tributes.
Questions remain about the crash, however. Why did Bryant's party fly despite the poor weather conditions? Whose decision was it to take off?
Why did the plane fly toward Thousand Oaks in its last minutes, and why did it circle the area several times before doing so?
Was there anything wrong with the jet during the flight?
Expert say the flight was more likely caused by the bad weather alone.
Deetz, the former pilot, told the LA Times: "The likelihood of a catastrophic twin engine failure on that aircraft — it just doesn't happen."
The NTSB and FAA are now investigating the matter. A NTSB spokesman told Business Insider part of its "Go Team" arrived in California Sunday night, with the rest due to arrive Monday.
They will likely give a news briefing on their findings later this week.
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