On January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed into a hillside in the city of Calabasas, California around 25 mi (40 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, while en route from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport. All nine people on board were killed: former professional basketball player Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna; baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and their 14-year-old daughter Alyssa; Sarah Chester and her 13-year-old daughter Payton; basketball coach Christina Mauser and the pilot Ara Zobayan.
The incident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which concluded that it was caused by continued VFR into IMC: the helicopter entered low cloud cover, which caused the pilot to lose his sense of orientation and thus lose control of the helicopter.
Accident
On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at about 9:06 a.m PST (17:06 UTC), eight passengers and one pilot departed from John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California in a 1991 Sikorsky S-76B helicopter, registration N72EX. They were heading to a basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park, where he was scheduled to coach his daughter's team. Flight history records showed the helicopter had flown same journey the day before without incident to Camarillo Airport (CMA), a major general aviation airport about 20 minutes by car from Mamba Sports Academy. The previous day's flight had taken only 30 minutes, in contrast, driving from Bryant's home in Newport Beach to the academy would normally take at least 2 hours.
Weather conditions
Several video recordings of the crash site were available and although none showed the crash itself, the sound of the helicopter and the crash was recorded. In particular, surveillance cameras installed at the Agoura Pony Baseball Fields provided overlapping coverage of the final parts of the flight path. The NTSB conducted a visibility study which used frequency analysis to determine when the aircraft made the closest approach to each camera, ground-speed, engine RPM and likely inflight visibility by comparing video recorded during the accident period to clear-sky imagery. The report concluded that, at the moment of the accident, the estimated visibility ranges were between 1–1.5 miles (1.6–2.4 km).
The Los Angeles Police Air Support Division had grounded its police helicopters on the morning of January 26 due to poor visibility and low ceiling; Air Support Division rules require at least 2 miles (3.2 km) of visibility and an 800-foot (240 m) cloud ceiling. At the time that N72EX took off from SNA, visibility was 5 miles (8.0 km) with a ceiling of 1,300 feet (400 m). It was operated by Island Express Helicopters, Inc. as a 14 CFR 135 (Part 135) on-demand passenger flight under visual flight rules (VFR). Flying through clouds is possible if a pilot elects to operate under instrument flight rules (IFR) but the company's Part 135 operating certificate, issued in 1998, limited operations to on-demand VFR-only flights. Even if the company's operating certificate and its own internal policies had allowed for flying under IFR, that option could still have led to lengthy delays and detours (thereby using up any anticipated time savings) because of severe congestion in Los Angeles controlled airspace. Bryant's celebrity status would not have given the helicopter priority in that airspace.
According to an automated weather station, the ceiling (distance from ground to bottom of the cloud layer) at the Van Nuys Airport was 1,100 feet (340 m) above ground level. Closer to the site of the crash, the cloud top extended up to 2,400 feet (730 m) above mean sea level.
Flight
Because visual flight rules prohibit a pilot from flying into or near clouds, the helicopter remained at an altitude of 700 or 800 feet (210 or 240 m) above mean sea level (MSL) while flying northwest from SNA. On most of its previous flights to Camarillo, the helicopter had turned west at downtown Los Angeles and flown over the Santa Monica Mountains until it picked up the Ventura Freeway (US 101). On January 26, that was not an option for VFR flights because of a deep marine layer which had pushed fog from the Pacific Ocean into the Santa Monica Mountains. Instead, the helicopter continued northwest, passed over Boyle Heights near Dodger Stadium and began following the route of the Golden State Freeway (I-5); as the flight approached Glendale, pilot Zobayan requested permission from the Hollywood Burbank Airport air traffic controllers to transition to following the Ventura Freeway (US 101). Burbank controllers advised him that weather conditions around the airport dictated IFR and held the helicopter circling in a holding pattern for 11 minutes starting at 9:21 a.m. PST (UTC−08:00) before granting it permission to proceed into the controlled airspace around Burbank Airport. The hold allowed two inbound flights to land; while holding, Burbank informed Zobayan the cloud top extended to an altitude of 2,400 ft (730 m). Burbank called Van Nuys, which was also operating under IFR, and Van Nuys advised Burbank to take Zobayan north of Van Nuys.
Permission to proceed was granted at 9:32 a.m. (17:32 UTC) under special VFR, requiring the pilot to stay under 2,500 feet (760 m) altitude. The helicopter climbed to an altitude of 1,400 feet (430 m) MSL, which Zobayan confirmed with Van Nuys at 9:35 a.m. (17:35 UTC). After proceeding through Burbank controlled airspace, the flight turned west, following the Ronald Reagan Freeway (SR 118) as it passed into the Van Nuys Airport controlled airspace; the Van Nuys controllers shortly afterward approved a turn southwest towards the Ventura Freeway (US 101) at 9:39 a.m. (17:39 UTC). Zobayan then confirmed he was still in VFR flight conditions at 1,500 feet (460 m) and acknowledged the handoff to Southern California air traffic control (SCT).
SCT made its first contact with Zobayan at 9:40 a.m. (17:40 UTC), confirming the helicopter's altitude and continued operation under VFR conditions. SCT informed Zobayan that at the aircraft's current altitude and position, they would lose communication and radar contact shortly, advising him to "squawk VFR" (transmit transponder code 1200) until he could contact Camarillo on the radio. By 9:42 a.m. (17:42 UTC), the helicopter had started following the Ventura Freeway west, entering more hilly terrain at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley. The SCT controller was relieved by a different controller at 9:43 a.m. (17:43 UTC). At 9:44:34 a.m. (17:44:34 UTC), Zobayan advised SCT that N72EX would be climbing above the cloud cover; the relieving SCT controller asked Zobayan to identify and asked if he was requesting flight following, a tracking service that would have provided the VFR flight with continuous verbal updates on air traffic. Zobayan confirmed that he was and in response to a question about his intentions, advised air traffic control at 9:45:15 a.m. (17:45:15 UTC) that he would level out at 4,000 feet (1,200 m); this was the last transmission made by Zobayan.
As it approached higher ground, the helicopter began to climb, gaining about 1,000 feet (300 m) of altitude in 36 seconds. According to transponder data, the helicopter first entered a climbing turn to the left, taking a southern heading and peaking at an altitude of 2,300 feet (700 m) MSL (1,500 feet (460 m) AGL). Eight seconds later, at about 9:45:18 a.m. (17:45 UTC), the helicopter, continuing its left turn to the southeast, started to descend rapidly. It reached a descent rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute (20 m/s) and a ground speed of 160 knots (180 mph; 300 km/h) before it struck a hillside at an elevation of approximately 1,085 feet (331 m); the aircraft's altitude at the last recorded ADS-B signal (9:45:36 a.m.) was 1,295 feet (395 m).
Impact and emergency response
The helicopter crashed and caught fire in Calabasas, California near the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street as reported by a 9-1-1 emergency call at 9:47 a.m. (17:47 UTC). The crash occurred on the New Millennium Loop Trail on a hillside behind the headquarters of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. The hillside is public land managed by both the water district and another government agency known as the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and forms part of a small valley that also happens to be the upper end of Malibu Canyon.
The impact crater was 15 by 24 feet (4.6 by 7.3 m) in diameter and 2 feet (0.6 m) deep, and the main wreckage came to rest about 127 feet (39 m) away from the point of initial impact at an angle of 347° (northwest) where it was consumed by fire. Much of the helicopter, cabin, cockpit and instrumentation were highly fragmented and destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire.
The helicopter came down between two groups of mountain bikers who called 9-1-1. Witnesses reported that the helicopter's engine was "sputtering" before the crash. Others reported seeing the helicopter flying into the ground at a "fairly significant rate of speed." It is unclear whether a distress call was made.
The crash started a 1⁄4-acre (11,000 sq ft; 1,000 m2) bush fire that was difficult to extinguish due to the presence of magnesium (which reacts with oxygen and water). Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters responded to the scene and by 10:30 a.m. they extinguished the fire. The debris from the crash was scattered on steep terrain over a field estimated to extend 500 to 600 feet (150 to 180 m). Firefighters hiked to the site and paramedics rappelled from a helicopter to the scene but could not locate any survivors; all nine occupants of the helicopter were killed in the crash. Based on examinations by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, all nine occupants died from blunt trauma.
Aircraft
The helicopter was a Sikorsky S-76B built in 1991, now registered N72EX. It was owned by Island Express Holding Corporation based in Fillmore, California. Until 2015, it had been owned by the government of the state of Illinois, which used it to transport governors and other officials. The state flew the helicopter as N761LL from 2007 to 2015, when it was put up for sale for $515,161. It was not clear who owned the helicopter before 2007. According to Sikorsky, this type of helicopter was "originally built for the rigorous demands of the offshore oil & gas transportation" and has had a relatively strong safety record since it first flew in 1977.
The passenger compartment was converted from a configuration seating twelve to eight after the sale to Island Express. The aircraft did not have a flight data recorder (FDR) or cockpit voice recorder (CVR); helicopters in the U.S. are not required to carry them. Although the S-76B originally had a CVR installed, records show that Island Express had removed the CVR shortly after acquiring the helicopter from the Illinois state government in March 2016. The helicopter was also not equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS); although the NTSB recommended that all helicopters designed to carry six or more passenger seats be equipped with a TAWS after a 2004 S-76A crash, the FAA did not enforce the recommendation.
Bryant's company had chartered the helicopter from Island Express, via broker OC Helicopters (OCH). Bryant had started using Island Express in 2015 and Zobayan was his preferred pilot. Zobayan held a commercial pilot certificate with rotorcraft-helicopter and instrument ratings, had a total of 8,577 flight hours, about 75 were IFR.
Reporting
The operations manager of OC Helicopters called the vice president of Island Express around 9:49 a.m., asking for the current location of the helicopter since the flight tracking application Spidertracks had stopped tracking at 9:45 a.m. The vice president called the general manager of Island Express, who was unable to reach the pilot over VHF radio and Island Express activated their Emergency Response Plan at 9:58 a.m. The company launched another helicopter to the site of the last tracked position from the Queensway heliport (in Long Beach) at 10:22 a.m. but the later flight was recalled at 10:27 a.m. after a crash had been confirmed at the site.
At 11:24 a.m., less than two hours after the crash, TMZ was the first news source to confirm Bryant's death. TMZ was later criticized by local law enforcement for reporting the story before the coroner's office had the opportunity to confirm the identities of the helicopter's occupants and inform their families. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva stated, "It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one had perished and you learn [that] through TMZ."