Federal officials announced Tuesday that the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others last year was because the pilot likely became disoriented while flying in the clouds in violation of federal rules.
The pilot, Ara Zobayan, who also died on January 26, 2020, in Calabasas, California, was piloting the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter under rules that prevented him from flying in clouds. However, he did not follow his training and continued in the clouds just before the plane crashed into a misty hill, investigators said.
The accident also killed the 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, of Bryant, two other teenage girls along with their family members, and a basketball coach. The victims were on their way from Orange County to a girls basketball game at Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy.
While encountering the foggy weather conditions, Zobayan informed air traffic controllers that he was climbing up to 4,000 feet to get above the cloud cover, while the helicopter was in fact rapidly descending, federal investigators said during a national transportation safety council ( NTSB)) Tuesday hearing.
The NTSB has determined that Zobayan is likely to experience ‘spatial disorientation’, a misleading sensation that confuses pilots of not knowing ‘which direction is up or down’.
Investigators also said that Zobayan, given his ‘very close’ friendship with Bryant through the years in which the NBA legend entrusted him to let his children fly to basketball games alone, experienced ‘self-pressure’ to complete the flight, disappointing Bryant .
While the NTSB said there was no evidence to suggest that the pilot’s employer, Island Express, or Bryant himself, put any pressure on Zobayan to accept the charter flight or to complete it, the “self-induced pressure adversely affects the pilot’s decision and judgment. “
Investigators indicated that the pilot’s self-induced pressure could possibly be a factor in the continuation plan, meaning that the pilot continued the flight without taking any alternative action, such as landing at a nearby airport, despite the deteriorating weather conditions. .
NTSB officials said the pilot was aware of the terrain before the flight and that the ‘weather is not creeping up on him’.
In the difficult weather conditions during the flight, Zobayan could have chosen to land the helicopter at a nearby airport, just a few minutes away, NTSB investigating officer Bill English said during the trial.
As Zobayan climbed into the clouds, he lost visual references to the outside that could lead to a “false sense of orientation” due to illusions inside, “investigators said. This could lead pilots’ perceptions to believe that they are flying straight and straight while in fact flying in a steady left turn – a phenomenon referred to as ‘the handrails’.
As soon as Zobayan flew into the clouds, he mistakenly noticed that he was climbing up, while ‘the helicopter turned left in a turn and descended quickly’, investigators said.
“This maneuver is consistent with the pilot experiencing spatial disorientation and limited visibility conditions,” officials said.
During the descent, the pilot communicated with air traffic control on several occasions, but declared a state of emergency, the NTSB said.
“The excessive speed entering the cloud, the rapid deterioration and the left turn were not in line with his training,” the agency said.
Even while the helicopter is deep down, the pilot does not refer to his instruments, or he struggles to interpret or believe them while disoriented, and loses control of the aircraft.
The NTSB said that from 2010 to 2019, there were 184 fatal aircraft accidents related to spatial disorientation, of which 20 were fatal helicopter accidents.
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the NTSB, said that spatial disorientation does not mean the pilot is lost.
He said spatial disorientation means the pilot “may not know which side is up or down, whether he or she is leaning left or right.”
“It’s not like this accident happened because the pilot flew along and did not know where the hills were, and bounced in the side of a hill,” Sumwalt said.
The crash is now at the center of several state and federal lawsuits, including an unlawful death lawsuit filed by Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, alleging that Zobayan and Island Express were negligent in causing the crash.
The complaint alleges that Zobayan ‘could not properly monitor and assess the weather before takeoff’, ‘did not interrupt the flight when he knew of the cloudy conditions’, and’ the helicopter flew improperly in the conditions of the instrument flight rules . ‘