It’s been a year since the devastating helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other people on board.
On the anniversary of the death of the NBA icon, the cause of the tragedy is still a mystery, but it may not be for long.
Next month the National Transportation Safety Board will hold a virtual hearing to determine the likely cause of the crash.
“The ‘probable cause’ is not to blame, it is more the most likely scenario that caused the crash,” Anthony Nrick, a former NTSB researcher, told The Post on Monday.
The NTSB has already ruled out the mechanical and engine failure of the convicted helicopter and, in May, published more than 1,800 pages of evidence collected during its investigation.
“What the NTSB does is they take all that data and analyze it,” Brickhouse said.
“They look at the human element, they look at the machine – so the real helicopter – and they look at the environment where the helicopter actually worked.”
“I haven’t seen anything suggesting that something mechanical has failed with the helicopter,” Brickouse continued. “So what you’re doing is focusing on the human element and the environmental element.”
“Reassemble this puzzle. You break this information “.
“This is what we will achieve on February 9,” the day of the hearing.
In the meantime, here’s what we know about the crash so far:
The flight:
On Sunday, January 26, 2020, around 9:06 a.m., Bryant, 41, his daughter and six other passengers took off in a twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B from John Wayne County Airport. of Orange, California.
The legendary Los Angeles Laker was heading to a youth basketball tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, about 85 miles away.
Other teams on board were assistant basketball coach Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton, and baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and his daughter, Alyssa.
About 15 minutes after takeoff on a cloudy day, pilot Ara Zobayan, who worked on Island Express Helicopters and had previously flown to Bryant, asked permission from air traffic controllers at Burbank Airport to enter its airspace. .
Due to poor visibility, Zobayan had to apply for what is known as a “special VFR” permit to fly, even under conditions.
After circling for about 11 minutes due to air traffic, the helicopter was granted permission to enter Burbank Airspace and then continued north towards Van Nuys Airport. .
The shock:
The pilot told air traffic controllers around 9:44 a.m. he was “climbing” 4,000 feet to avoid a layer of clouds.
In fact, the helicopter went up slightly before turning sharply to the left and descending quickly, crashing into a hill at approximately 9:45 p.m.
According to the NTSB, the pilot “could have misperceived both the angles of passage and the angles of rotation,” disorienting spatially and feeling his plane take off when it was not.
“When a pilot misperceives altitude and acceleration, it is known as‘ somatographic illusion ’and can cause spatial disorientation,” the preliminary report said.
Brickhouse explained: “When you have a clear sky and good visibility, you can see what you have to see.
“But unfortunately, when you’re in the clouds, sometimes physiologically, your brain, based on the inner ear, confuses you.”
“We’ve seen it in accidents in the past,” he added, “where drivers get into these conditions and have problems.”
The weather:
The time of day of the accident was another fact that investigators examined, with evidence compiled in a 394-page weather report.
The videos and photos “show fog and low clouds darkening the tops of the hill,” the report notes, adding that Zobayan was struggling with a “low cloud roof.”
The lawsuits filed by Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and the families of the other victims have argued that Zobayan should not have flown under the conditions.
Both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the police department had landed their fleets that day due to fog and low clouds.
The helicopter:
Meanwhile, the ill-fated helicopter had a strong safety record and had even carried Bryant before, even after his last Lakers game in 2016.
“Nothing in the history of this model catches my eye as a negative,” Brickhouse said.
However, the helicopter did not have a “black box” or a flight recorder, nor did it have TAWS, a ground awareness system that alerts pilots when they fly too close to the ground.
It is required in medical helicopters but not in commercial ones like the one used by Bryant, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
In view of Feb. 9, the NTSB will also make recommendations “to try to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future,” Brickhouse said.
“I’m curious about what the likely cause will be, what the contributing factors will be, and, broadly speaking, what will happen to these recommendations.”