RIP Kobe Bryant.

[OBI-wan]

Killed in a helicopter crash.

[dlodoski]

:( Killed in a helicopter crash.

Neil Peart and Kobe Bryant lost in the same month.

I feel like what made half of my adult life interesting is being pulled out from under me.

[OBI-wan]

His 13 year-old daughter was killed too .

[BogDog]

Very tragic...and avoidable. What we have here appears to be similar to the Stevie Ray and Bill Graham tragedies....A helicopter flying in poor visibility at low altitude. Conditions were said to be quite foggy. Will people ever learn?


I finally found a full image of the crash site to tell me what may have happened. I've been into aviation for almost 40 years and have seen a lot of sadness along the way, and it definitely looks like classic "controlled flight into terrain". What evidence I see is not from a helicopter falling out of the sky but rather flying right into a hillside.

See for yourself if you wish.... The bird appears to have been moving from right to left in this photo.... initial impact point with a debris-filled crater on the far right, just above the heads of the two rescuers in red helmets...... then a circular, flattened-down grass pattern 50 feet or so past the crater where the spinning rotor literally "mowed the lawn" as it kept moving forward and impacted a fraction of a second later (note orange pieces of main rotor blades still on-site), then shedding debris everywhere as the main section tumbled on to the left via forward momentum and finally settled on a nearby fire road and rain-wash gully.

https://conteudo.imguol.com.br/c/esport ... 10x983.jpg


This is not a sign of mechanical error. This is not contaminated fuel. This is pilot error, clear as day. Those 9 souls need not have perished today.

The only question is, was this pilot-for-hire pressured to make the flight into pea-soup fog, or his/her own bad judgement? Will we ever know? They have a cockpit recorder in-hand, so maybe we'll learn something later.

Such a waste.

[Mr Mudster]

My wife and I were having lunch at Hooters, watching the Pro Bowl on ESPN when they announced this. We just stared at each other in disbelief! Amazing how things can change in a heartbeat for someone.

I'm not an NBA fan, but I respected what Kobe did for the kids in his city, and around the country. And all of it over because of a pilot that though he was better than the weather.

[Duncan Edwards]

Very tragic...and avoidable. What we have here appears to be similar to the Stevie Ray and Bill Graham tragedies....A helicopter flying in poor visibility at low altitude. Conditions were said to be quite foggy. Will people ever learn?


I finally found a full image of the crash site to tell me what may have happened. I've been into aviation for almost 40 years and have seen a lot of sadness along the way, and it definitely looks like classic "controlled flight into terrain". What evidence I see is not from a helicopter falling out of the sky but rather flying right into a hillside.

Beyond just the horror of the situation my first thought was some dope pilot flew into one of the hills around L.A. There really wasn't much else that made sense. This can only happen due to human ego or carelessness because it's not like that hill grew up over night and was some previously unmarked feature. "Yeah, it's foggy but I can react fast enough at 160 mph to avoid anything that suddenly appears 300 feet ahead." My father-in-law was an excellent physician who graduated at the top of his class from a prestigious medical school. He was fond of pointing out that "Fifty percent of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class." That was his way of making you realize that not all people in responsible situations were created equal. It will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals.

[H-Less Perv Side]

It reminds me of Country music star Troy Gentry, whom I believe was also killed in a helicopter crash. (It wasn’t the same one, but still.) It’s tragic indeed.

[Mynock]

Radar tracking and radio communications from the last moments before the crash. Maybe our resident aviation gurus can make something of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pQfgi9ZqU

RIP......I don't follow basketball but I know he was one of the greats. Did a lot for his community too it seems. Damn shame.

[dlodoski]

I've read a lot of (well informed) speculative comments about what might have happened. It's going to take some time for anything conclusive to take form.

I think that when's it all said and done, it will turn out that a series of decisions and events all led to this, which is normal for most disasters.

Kobe was larger than life, as the saying goes. My stepson was a big fan. I think it had to do with his smile and his (public) attitude. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. And he did inspire a lot of people, both in and out of the sport of basketball.

And yes, nine people perished, not one more important than the other in the grand scheme of things. We should mourn for all of those affected.

[BogDog]

It reminds me of Country music star Troy Gentry, whom I believe was also killed in a helicopter crash. (It wasn’t the same one, but still.) It’s tragic indeed.

That accident was due to the pilot making errors while attempting an emergency landing during an engine issue. Really messed up when you put your life in some else's hand's and they fail.


This Kobe incident was more like Stevie Ray Vaughn's accident...A perfectly good helicopter flown into a hillside in low visibility conditions. Kinda like Bill Graham's too, though his ride in poor weather hit a high voltage tower not all that far north of me. Senseless losses, all of them.