Kobe Bryant’s Last Moments Detailed in New Reconstruction Report

Two weeks after Kobe Bryant was killed in a horrific helicopter crash, fans are still trying to make sense of the tragedy. Details on the incident have been hard to reconcile, but a clear picture of Bryant’s final 24 hours is finally coming together. Now, fans can get a better idea of what led to the crash.

Bryant died on Sunday, Jan. 26 when his charter helicopter went down in Calabasas, California. He was flying to the Mamba Sports Academy, a gym he co-owned in Thousand Oaks, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, two of her basketball teammates and five other adults.

The flight could easily have been unremarkable, as so many of Bryant’s other flights were. He was well-known for relying on helicopter transportation over the years, and he explained the touching reason why in a 2018 interview with The Corp. He said that flying over the infamous southern California traffic allowed him to “still train and focus on the craft, but not compromise family time.”

“So, that’s when I looked into helicopters,” he said. “[I’d] be able to get down and back in fifteen minutes. And that’s when it started. So my routine was always the same: weights early in the morning, kids to school, fly down, practice like crazy, do my extra work — media, everything I needed to do — fly back, get back in the carpool line and pick the kids up.”

“My wife was like ‘listen, I can pick them up,’” Bryant recalled. “I’m like, ‘no no no! I want to do that. Because you know, you have road trips and times when you don’t see your kids, man. So like, every time I got the chance to see them and spend time with them, even if it’s 20 minutes in the car… like, I want that.”

While helicopter flights may not have been an especially big deal for Bryant and his family, his final 24 hours did reveal some surprisingly poignant moments. Reporters from The New York Times pieced together the entire scene, drawing from friends, family members, eye-witness accounts, social media and flight records.

Here is what we know now about the last few moments of Bryant’s storied life.

Saturday Evening

Bryant spent Saturday at the Mamba Sports Academy for the first day of the big tournament. It was the first tournament for Team Mamba, Gianna’s team. That day, the helicopter flight there and back went off without a hitch. The team played at noon and again at 2 p.m. PT. Competitors ranged in age from 9 to 14 and came from all over the state.

Back home in Orange County, took his 3-year-old daughter Bianka to an outdoor mall called Fashion Island at about 5 p.m. They were seen holding hands as she walked beside him in a Minnie Mouse jacket. They paused for a moment to watch fish swimming in a display koi pond.

Bryant later kept his eyes on the Lakers’ game against the 76ers in Philadelphia that night. He knew that LeBron James would likely beat his career scoring record that night, and he made the final social media post of his life congratulating James.

“Continuing to move the game forward,” he wrote. “Much respect my brother.”

Bryant reportedly called James to congratulate him personally as well, just after 8 p.m. PT. James put Bryant on speakerphone so that he could speak to the whole team.

Early Morning Calls

Bryant was reportedly up before sunrise as usual on Sunday, Jan. 26. He drove five miles from his home to Our Lady Queen of Angels, the Catholic church his family was a part of.

A priest told reporters that he bumped into Bryant leaving before first mass even began. He guessed that the NBA star had been praying, and noted a drop of holy water on his forehead.

Bryant reportedly spoke to James on the phone again after leaving church. The contents of their call is between them, but James hung up to get on the team’s plane, which took them from Philadelphia back home to Los Angeles.

Bryant then sent an private Instagram message to Shareef O’Neal, son of Shaquille O’Neal, at 8:19 a.m. He was apparently just checking in after not hearing from O’Neal for a few months, asking: “You good fam?”

Finally, at 8:45 a.m., Bryant and Gianna left home to head to the airport. One man recalled seeing them at a stop light on the way, talking and laughing in the front seat.

‘Mamba Chopper’ Passengers

There were six other people in the so-called “Mamba Chopper” on that Sunday morning, all at Bryant’s invitation. They included two of Gianna’s teammates, 14-year-old Alyssa Altobelli and 13-year-old Payton Chester, as well as Chester’s mother Sarah and Altobelli’s parents, Keri and John.

John Altobelli was well-known as the coach of the Orange Coast College baseball team. He was reportedly at work on Saturday, forcing him to miss the start of the tournament, but he planned to go on Sunday. His assistant coach told reporters that he was dreading the 90-minute drive, until he got a phone call from Bryant.

“Sweet. Kobe’s taking us in the chopper,” he reportedly said.

The Altobellis lived nearby Bryant, while the Chesters lived a bit to the south. The final passenger was the team’s coach Christina Mauser, who lived to the north. Pilot Ara Zobayan lived near her.

John Wayne Airport

All of the passengers had been asked to meet at John Wayne Airport at 9 a.m. for the flight. There, they reportedly found a lounge crowded with glum passengers, who found that their flights had been grounded due to poor weather. They watched CBS Sunday Morning or played with their phones.

Bryant’s party was allowed to skip this wait. Parking his Range Rover in his familiar spot, he led his group into another lounge, then out into the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter registered as N72EX, but affectionately referred to as the “Mamba Chopper.”

Several of the passengers who saw Bryant’s party pass through the stalled airport said that they were still waiting there an hour later when news of the crash broke online and on TV.

Flying Conditions

A low pressure system was reportedly responsible for that morning’s poor flying conditions. It pushed moisture down, forming a thick layer of foggy clouds that would interfere with many regular aircraft functions. The company that Zobayan was working for, Island Express, was not certified to fly with instruments, so he had to rely on Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Special VFR in certain circumstances.

Ultimately, it was up to Zobayan to decide whether it was safe to take off, not authorities or air traffic controllers. It is not clear whether he consulted with management at Island Express, but friends said that he might have felt pressured to fly since he had a celebrity client.

They also noted that Zoboyan likely thought he could land or turn back if the weather worsened on the way. Finally, the pilot would have been familiar with this trip, having made it the day before with Bryant.

The helicopter took off at 9:06 a.m. PT.

Staying Low

Zobayan reached an altitude between 700 and 800 feet, keeping the helicopter just below the clouds. They began at a pace of about 170 miles per hour heading north towards Los Angeles.

The thick clouds prevented Zobayan from veering west like the day before, as he could not fly high enough to get over the Hollywood Hills. Instead, he flew low, following the path of I-5 on the ground.

The helicopter circled for a while as Glendale air traffic controllers kept Zobayan in a holding pattern. A NetJets charter from Tuscon, Arizona was passing by, flying with instruments instead of VFR. The Mamba Chopper circled five times in 11 minutes, slowing to about 70 miles per hour.

Controllers re-routed the chopper again to avoid another inbound plane, this time forcing them to take a wide path over the San Fernando Valley. It was clocked 1,400 feet at 9:39 a.m., following Highway 101 towards Camarillo.

Final Call

It was here that the conditions became especially dangerous, experts said. The Santa Monica Mountains make the highway in that area rise and fall rapidly, and the space between the clouds and the ground was shrinking before them.

Zobayan radioed air traffic controllers to request flight following, which means that they would track his path and provide advisories ahead of him. However, he still needed to stay below the clouds to maximize visibility, which prevented controllers from following his movements with radar.

“Two Echo X-Ray, you’re still too low level for flight following at this time,” controllers reportedly said, addressing Zobayan with the helicopter’s code.

Finally, Zobayan called controllers again at 9:45 a.m., saying he was climbing in altitude to avoid the cloud layer. The aircraft rose about 1,000 feet in 36 seconds. At a height of about 2,300 feet, it made a broad partial U-turn to the left, then started a steep descent.

This was the last communication the Mamba Chopper made before it crashed. The official time for the impact is noted as 9:45 a.m.

Witnesses

Despite the fog, there were witness who saw — or at least heard — the moment the helicopter fell. Scott Daehlin, a long-time resident of the area, said that he heard the helicopter buzzing overhead and immediately feared the worst.

“Oh no. It’s too low,” he remembered muttering.

Daehlin heard a thud, then silence. He called 911 to report the crash.

“I just heard a helicopter go over me,” he told the operator. After giving his location, he went on: “It went over my head, thick in clouds, and I heard a pop and it immediately stopped. I can’t see it.”

Meanwhile, two groups of mountain bikers were up on the same hill, several hundred feet up. They were riding on a trail called “Millennium” when the Mamba Chopper crashed, with a group on either side of the wreckage.

The local sheriff’s deputies responded first, followed by fire trucks, as the crash sparked a massive brush fire. Paramedics rappelled to the crash site from their own helicopter overhead, but found no survivors.

Altobelli Family

The Times acquired a copy of the texts sent between members of the Altobelli family as news of the crash began to spread. John’s younger brother, Tony, received a call from their brother Jim, who lives in Texas.

“Did you hear about Kobe?” he reportedly asked.

Trying to make sense of the reports, Tony reached out to Sammy Doucette, an Orange Coast College basketball coach who had worked at Mamba Academy before.

“Hey Sammy is it true about Kobe?” he asked in a text sent at 11:54 a.m.

“Where is John?” she replied at once. “Was he on board? Where’s Alyssa?”

“You better call John,” she went on. “His phone is off. I know he’s flown on the copter before.”

At 11:55 a.m., Tony texted John, asking: “Hey, are you there? Are you and the kids OK?” There was no response. Soon, Tony reached out to other baseball coaches at Orange Coast College. Tim Matz reportedly called him back.

“They’re all gone,” he said.

“Who’s all gone?” Tony asked.

“John, Keri and Alyssa,” Matz said. “They’re all gone.”

Mamba Academy

At the Mamba Sports Academy, families gathered for the basketball tournament did not learn about the crash until nearly two hours later. Sherri Rosenthal received a message at 11:29 a.m.

“OMG!!! Kobe died in a helicopter crash!!” it read.

Before long, the entire gym had heard the news. Unsure of what to do, they reportedly gathered on Court 4 where Team Mamba plays. Britteny Gregory, a mother of one of the players, settled the panic.

“Everybody on their knees. Let’s pray,” she reportedly said, and people dropped to the floor in a moment of contemplative silence.

The families and players soon left the gym in shock and confusion. The tournament came to an abrupt end.