Details About Kobe Bryant's Helicopter Crash Made Available to Public
The National Transportation Safety Board has revealed that the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others plunged at a rate of “2,000 feet per minute” before crashing into a mountain in Calabasas, Calif.
“We know this was a high-energy impact crash, and the helicopter was in a descending left bank,” an official said during a press conference on Tuesday (January 28).
We also learned the helicopter was not equipped with terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS). They believe this would have helped the pilot, as it would have alerted him to the terrain around him.
The NTSB actually requested that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) require TAWS on all helicopters after a deadly crash in 2004 in Galveston, Texas. The helicopter was also not equipped with cockpit voice recorders (CVR) and flight data recorders (FDR), something the NTSB requested the FAA should require.
In addition, a press release has revealed that the bodies of the victims had been recovered from the crash site.
“On Sunday afternoon, personnel from the department’s Special Operations Response Team (SORT) recovered three bodies from the helicopter wreckage located in the 4200 block of Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas,” a press release said (via People). “The next day, the search continued for the other six helicopter occupants. Soon after, their bodies were located, removed from the crash site and transported to the department’s Forensic Science Center.”
Investigators are working to identify the victims through “the use of fingerprints,” and have identified Kobe Bryant, 41, John Altobelli, 56, Sarah Chester, 46, and the pilot Ara Zobayan, 50. The others are still being identified.
Our continued thoughts are with the families of the victims in this tragedy.