Kobe Bryant helicopter pilot dismissed weather concerns before crash, NTSB documents show
The night before Kobe Bryant’s fateful final helicopter trip, the broker arranging the former Lakers star’s flight to Thousand Oaks expressed concern to the pilot that “weather could be an issue.”
The next morning, on Jan. 26, the pilot, Ara Zobayan of Huntington Beach, assured the broker and Bryant’s personal drivers that the weather conditions “should be OK,” according to text messages made public on Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
An hour and half later, Zobayan, Bryant, his daughter Gianna and six other people on board the helicopter were killed when the craft plunged into a fog-shrouded hillside above Calabasas. Bryant and his daughter lived in Newport Coast.
The text message exchanges are among the findings in 1,700 pages of documents released by federal regulators Wednesday. The documents draw no conclusions about the cause of the crash and will be followed by a final report.
A preliminary report in February said there were no signs of engine failure, meaning the chopper didn’t lose power before it hit the hill. The NTSB noted that videos and photos from the public “depict fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltops.” The preliminary report repeatedly noted that the pilot had struggled with a low cloud ceiling.
A witness on a mountain bike trail told investigators that the area was “surrounded by mist” and that he heard the sound of a helicopter and saw a blue and white chopper emerge from the clouds, passing from left to right.
The 1991 Sikorsky S-76B was carrying parents, coaches and players to a youth basketball game at Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks. Those who perished in the fiery crash included Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna; Christina Mauser; Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; and Zobayan. John Altobelli was the longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College.
Matthew Ormseth and Richard Winton are staff writers with the Los Angeles Times.
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