The pilot of Kobe Bryant's helicopter that crashed last year violated flight standards by flying through clouds and likely became disoriented just before the crash that killed the basketball legend, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others, safety investigators said Tuesday.
Pilot Ara Zobayan, 50, who also was killed in the Jan 26 crash, was flying under visual flight rules through cloud cover, which was "legally prohibited", yet he "continued his flight into clouds", National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at a four-hour public hearing in Washington to specify the likely cause or causes of the crash.
Zobayan had been certified to fly using only instruments, but was no longer proficient, Sumwalt said.
The NTSB said poor visibility probably led Zobayan to become disoriented in thick fog north of Los Angeles. Investigators said they believed Zobayan experienced a spatial disorientation known as "the leans", which occurs in the inner ear and causes pilots to believe they are flying aircraft straight and level when they are actually banking.
There have been 184 aircraft crashes between 2010 and 2019 involving spatial disorientation, including 20 fatal helicopter crashes, the NTSB said.
NTSB member Michael Graham said Zobayan ignored his training, adding that as long as helicopters continue to fly into clouds while using visual flight rules, "a certain percentage will not come out alive"
Zobayan, the NTSB said, also made a "poor decision" to fly at excessive speed in bad weather, and the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter wasn't in a controlled flight pattern when it crashed.
The helicopter was flying at about 184 mph (296 kph) and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) per minute when it slammed into the hillside and ignited, scattering debris over an area the size of a football field. The victims died immediately.
The investigators said that videos and photos from the public depicted fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltops. NTSB investigator Bill English said the "weather did not sneak up on the pilot", and board members said that he had an easy alternative of landing at nearby Van Nuys Airport.
The board said that Zobayan "likely" felt self-induced pressure to get Bryant and his daughter Gianna to a basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy. It found no evidence that Bryant pressured the pilot.
The group had flown to the same destination the previous day, and Zobayan had flown Bryant along that route at least 10 times in 2019.
Zobayan was the chief pilot for Island Express Helicopters Inc and had 8,500 hours of flight experience and about 10 years' experience of flying in the area where the craft crashed, the NTSB said during the hearing.
Island Express, which owned and operated the helicopter for charter flights, has said that foggy weather before the helicopter hit the ground was an act of God and has sued the Federal Aviation Administration, blaming its air traffic controllers for the crash.
But investigators said the air controllers weren't to blame for the crash. The agency cited Island Express for inadequate review and oversight of safety matters.
Vanessa Bryant, the widow of the 41-year-old retired Los Angeles Lakers icon, has blamed the pilot. She and relatives of the other victims also have faulted Island Express.
After the hearing, the NTSB issued 13 findings of fact, including that the pilot lost visual references in the clouds, made a poor decision to fly at excessive speed and experienced spatial disorientation.
The six other passengers killed were Payton Chester, 13; Sarah Chester, 45; Alyssa Altobelli, 14; Keri Altobelli, 46; John Altobelli, 56; and Christina Mauser, 38.
