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Bryant and his daughter Gianna. Picture: STUFF SPORTS.
The helicopter pilot who crashed into a Southern California hillside last year, killing Kobe Bryant and seven other passengers, went against his training and violated flight rules by flying into thick clouds, US safety officials say.
The comments were made during a hearing aimed at pinpointing probable causes of the crash.
Pilot Ara Zobayan likely became so disoriented that he could not discern up from down, investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.
The agency criticised Zobayan’s decision to fly into the clouds, saying he violated federal standards that required him to be able to see where he was going before the helicopter crashed during a roughly 40-minute flight.
US officials: Pilot error caused Kobe Bryant chopper crash
By STEFANIE DAZIO, BRIAN MELLEY and DAVID KOENIGFebruary 9, 2021 GMT
LOS ANGELES (AP) The pilot who crashed the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, killing all nine aboard, made a series of poor decisions that led him to fly blindly into a wall of clouds where he became so disoriented he thought he was climbing when the craft was plunging toward a Southern California hillside, federal safety officials said Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board primarily blamed pilot Ara Zobayan in the Jan. 26, 2020 crash that killed him along with Bryant, the basketball star’s daughter and six other passengers heading to a girls basketball tournament.
Helicopter pilot flying Kobe Bryant didn’t follow training when flying into clouds, investigators say Author: Stefanie Dazio, Brian Melley, David Koenig, Associated Press Updated: February 9 Published February 9
FILE - In this July 26, 2018, file photo, former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna watch the U.S. national championships swimming meet in Irvine, Calif. Federal safety officials are expected to vote Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, on what likely caused the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others to crash into a Southern California hillside last year, killing all aboard. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, file)
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Helicopter Pilot in Kobe Bryant Crash Was Disoriented in Clouds, Safety Officials Rule
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The National Transportation Safety Board has ruled that the pilot flying the helicopter in which NBA legend Kobe Bryant and eight others were killed was likely disoriented by flying through clouds before the crash.
The federal safety officials came to the ruling Tuesday during a virtual meeting to determine the probably cause of the tragic crash.
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Pilot Ara Zobayan, who often transported Bryant, was “flying under visual flight orders, or VFR, which legally prohibited him from penetrating the clouds,” but he continued to fly into the clouds, said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt.
Safety investigators say the pilot of Kobe Bryant's helicopter flew through the clouds in an apparent violation of federal standards, and likely became disoriented.