The helicopter that crashed into a hillside and killed Kobe Bryant and eight others on Sunday, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, was heartbreakingly close to avoiding disaster. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the helicopter missed clearing the hillside in Calabasas, California, by just 20 to 30 feet. It’s been reported the helicopter descended rapidly before it crashed outside the Los Angeles area.
“The descent rate for the helicopter was over 2,000 feet a minute,” NTSB member Jennifer Homendy said per CNN. “This is a pretty steep descent at high speed.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the crash, but the coroner has ruled the crash an accident. Experts have floated many theories about the crash by Homendy said the helicopter lacked a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder.
“Having a CVR and an FDR would have helped us significantly in this investigation,” the NTSB member said.
At the crash site, investigators said they found debris that stretched over a 500-foot radius. Some of the items that have been recovered are “an iPad, a cell phone and documents such as the helicopter’s maintenance records, registration and airworthiness certificate.” The NTSB will release a preliminary report on the crash in 10 days, but more questions will need to be answered.
“It’s not going to contain our findings, our analysis,” Homendy said. “It’s not going to contain any safety recommendations or probable cause. But it’s going to provide some factual information — more than we have now.”
Some experts wondered why the helicopter was not grounded considering the severe weather conditions.
“This was totally avoidable, and on the part of some people I can go as far as to say irresponsible” Robert Ditchey, a longtime airplane pilot, aeronautical engineer and former airline executive, said to USA Today. “Here’s one of the most important people in the world who comes to a tragic end like this and you say, ‘Why? What the hell happened?’”
“They’re in the fog, and you’re down hugging the ground trying to fly up the highway and barely able to see it,” Ditchey continued. “He’s down only 100 feet or so above the ground. In that area of the San Fernando Valley you have mountains on either side of you … and the clouds have obscured them, and you don’t have that much room to maneuver.”
