The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has revealed that the helicopter that killed NBA legend, Kobe Bryant and eight others on Sunday in California, was not equipped with a black box, nor was it required to be. There was, however, an iPad on board used for flight itinerary, weather conditions and other flight elements that investigators will look at, officials say.
A member of NTSB, Jennifer Homendy who spoke outside the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Calabasas, disclosed some new details on the black box and the crash in general, but Homendy spent some time discussing the aircraft’s flight path “because I want to make sure it is reported accurately,” Deadline news had reported.
Homendy said there was no “black box” aboard the helicopter and that federal rules do not require that they have one. She added that investigators are expected to be on scene for five days to “collect perishable evidence” but stressed that they are not there to determine a cause of the accident.
The flight area was shrouded in fog Sunday morning, but pilot Ara Zobayan was qualified to fly in bad conditions and had been cleared to fly that day, according to his communications with air traffic controllers.
Homendy said investigators are looking at, “but not just focusing on” weather as a possible cause of the crash and asked the public to provide any photos that show the weather conditions in the area at the time of the crash. She also noted that there is “no criminal aspect of this investigation.”
She said veteran pilot Zobayan — who also died in the accident — was flying from John Wayne Airport in Orange County to just south of Burbank Airport. She said “preliminary information is that the helicopter was flying under special visual flight rules, or VFRs, an air traffic control authorization that allows an aircraft to proceed through controlled airspace at less than the basic VFR minimums of 1,000-foot ceiling with three miles visibility.”
She added that while awaiting approval for the special VFR, the pilot circled for about 12 minutes until his request was approved by air traffic controllers. She said the pilot requested “flight following” which Homendy described as radar tracking — but air traffic controllers said the helicopter was flying too low to allow for that.
“Approximately four minutes later,” she said, “the pilot advised that they were climbing to avoid a cloud layer” as the craft headed instead for Camarillo. “When ATC asked what the pilot planned to do, there was no reply.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said it will be “a misdemeanor for anyone to unlawfully access the crash site” and said deputies are patrolling the area on horseback.
The Las Virgenes offramps from the north- and southbound 1010 Freeway remain closed, as does Las Virgenes Road between Agoura Road and Lost Hills Road. Only residents with ID are allowed into the perimeter.
The pilot of the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter and 6 other passengers got in big trouble with fog they seemed to abort the trip and tried returning home, barely clearing one mountain range, but never slowed down, this according to the flight tracker and several experienced helicopter pilots in the L.A. area.
The pilot had to circle near the Downtown L.A. area — near the L.A. Zoo for 15 minutes because of bad weather ahead.
TMZ had reported that the LAPD had grounded its helicopter fleet because of fog at around the same time Kobe’s helicopter took off.
The pilot was following a visual flight plan and was cleared by the tower to proceed north, toward Thousand Oaks where Kobe was taking his daughter for a basketball game. When he got to the Calabasas area, the fog became blinding.
The pilot was way too low at 1,250 feet. The report also stated that some pilots who spoke on the incident, say it’s clear based on the abrupt change on the flight tracker the pilot panicked and quickly ascended to 2,000 feet. He cleared a mountain range by 100 feet, and the pilots say he was so low he almost certainly saw the tops of the mountain.
The pilots all of whom have extensive experience say based on the flight tracker and the accident scene, they believe the pilot felt he had cleared all of the mountains and was proceeding to head back when he hit another mountain. The pilot clearly did not know there were mountains ahead because he actually descended from 2,000 feet to 1,700 feet presumably to go under the fog.
Even more baffling, the Pilots told TMZ, was that the pilot was extremely experienced flying in that area and was even a flight instructor.
One seasoned helicopter pilot told TMZ, he could not understand why Kobe’s pilot would have maintained a speed of 161 knots in such dense fog.
One of the benefits of a helicopter is you can go much slower — even 15 mph — to gingerly avoid terrain if you’re uncertain.
Sources say the chopper was sophisticated and had an altitude warning signal to pull up, but it was too late. As we said, he was doing 161 knots and didn’t slow down. The helicopter hit the mountain at that speed.
Several of the pilots we spoke with say the pilot should have gone up to clear the fog, rather than down. To that end, we’re told the pilot could have slowed down to almost a stop as he turned, but didn’t.