Man this sucks Helos always concerned me. I was in the Army and I never did like flying on them. My Brother is a retired CW4 and flew them in the Army. He always said lots of moving parts and a lot going on. They could take your life in a second...….
"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone"...
I grew up with a love for the game of basketball, starting when dad took us to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Became a Laker fan back in the Jerry West days. One of the greatest to ever play the game, and one of his daughters, taken way too soon. The entire NBA, and those of us with an appreciation for the game, are pretty much gutted. Respect that.
I am not a big basketball fan but its a sad deal for sure. I feel for his wife and three daughters. But mostly I am proud that my father(who passed away recently) taught me to be non-judgmental and respectful of the dead. Some of the comments here are unbelievable.......
TMZ and flight tracker report they accidentally flew into the side of a mountain at 1700' moving 161 knots (185mph) due to heavy fog. I've read the headlines all day and it's just as shocking as the first time.
TMZ and flight tracker report they accidentally flew into the side of a mountain at 1700' moving 161 knots (185mph) due to heavy fog. I've read the headlines all day and it's just as shocking as the first time.
Huh ...
I was a crew member on a helicopter years ago .....
In the heavy fog ... in a mountainous area ... 185 mph ... is INSANE !
This afternoon my wife and I were talking about this. I work with a army vet who was in Afghanistan, he was shot once and blown up once by a suicide bomber. In the bombing he suffered brain injuries and practically had his face skinned off. I told my wife that when he passes (hopefully many, many years from now) he won't make the news. Even though he sacrificed way more for our country and received much, much less than folks like Koby did.
Don't get me wrong, I am truly sorry for the families of all involved and I pray for comfort in their time of need. But guys like my friend at work fought, were injured and some died so guys like Kobe could make millions playing a game. IMHO, our society has some serious priority issues.
I am a FAA licensed commercial instrumented rated single engine land air plane pilot with no experiences in any helicopters. I am under the impression that most helicopters are rated for visual flight rule flying only, which is defined as minimum of 1000 ft. ceilings and 3 mile visibility in all directions, also the rule of at least 1000 Ft clearances, unless landing, in urban area from all people and buildings, this flying rule applies to all certified aircraft including helicopters. My heart weeps for the families of those that where killed in this accident, including Kobe Bryant family
Mr.Cab Racing and winning with Mopars since 1964. (Old F--t, Huh)
Flight tracker information appears to show the helicopter flying into the hill at 150 mph. Looks like the pilot tried to gain altitude right at the end. I do not know how accurate the flight tracker info is. If you listen to the air traffic control tape you can hear the controller asking the pilot what he is doing. He asks what are you intentions? Your altitude is too low for that terrain. The air traffic controller told the pilot to follow the freeway but for some reason the pilot took a left turn into the hill. We'll get a report from the Feds in a few months. Be interested to see what they find.
Flight tracker information appears to show the helicopter flying into the hill at 150 mph. Looks like the pilot tried to gain altitude right at the end. I do not know how accurate the flight tracker info is. If you listen to the air traffic control tape you can hear the controller asking the pilot what he is doing. He asks what are you intentions? Your altitude is too low for that terrain. The air traffic controller told the pilot to follow the freeway but for some reason the pilot took a left turn into the hill. We'll get a report from the Feds in a few months. Be interested to see what they find.
Here's a post from a recently retired Army helo pilot. He's a member of another board I frequent.
"CFIT
Controlled flight into terrain.
Number one killer of Army Aviators.
Weather - Number one cause
I’ve flown special visual flight rules (SVFR) more times than I can count, and every single time was [censored] terrifying.
Weather at the time of the crash.
1100ft ceilings Overcast, 2.5 miles of visibility with haze. 30.19 altimeter setting on the first call heard on the radio.
One of the radio calls, the controller stated that an aircraft had a missed approach while flying under instruments, and was unable to see the runway. Which means an aircraft, flying instruments, descended to 100-400ft above the runway depending on the type of approach, could not see the runway, the runway lights, or even the airport, aborted the approach, and was setting up to try again.
When they transitioned to the next airports airspace the tower called out Altimeter is 30.16
Ambient pressure dropped.
Weather gets worse when the pressure drops, ceilings come down, visibility gets worse.
One of the last calls from the helicopter, they were requesting flight following.
The controller asked them to ident. Meaning push the identification button on the transponder so the radar system can pick them up.
They were so low, the radar could not see them.
No more transmissions were received.
To those of you who don’t understand what it’s like to fly in the clouds.
Imagine spiritedly driving an awesome canyon road around 80mph, and suddenly your windshield completely fogs over, all you see is grey, and the defroster is totally ineffective, only you can’t slow down, and the only thing to guide you is the GPS screen on your dashboard.
Even then, this doesn’t capture the full situation, because now your car can hover above the road, be below the road, drift to either side of the road, and can begin to roll to the left or the right or the nose can pitch up or down. If it rolls too far, or pitches up or down too far, it begins falling uncontrollably.
Your body can tell you the car is rolling when it’s not, and can even get so bad that if feels like you are spinning in your seat, and doing somersaults in any direction. You hands will instinctively attempt to correct and get the spinning in your head to stop. The only way to overcome it, is to look at and trust your instruments aren’t lying to you, suppress all the sensations your body is telling you, and fly the instruments like a video game. It’s incredibly difficult.
On top of that. Helicopters don’t want to fly straight and level. They are constantly attempting to roll one direction or another, pitch up, and pitch down. It requires 100% of your full attention, and constant control inputs to keep the helicopter going the direction you want it to go.
Additionally if you admit that you can’t see, and declare an emergency to have the people on the ground to help you get safely back where you’re going, you can lose your job that you have worked your entire life to earn for putting yourself in that position in the first place.
I had a hard self imposed limit of 1000ft ceilings and 3 statute miles of visibility before I would take off for a non-essential flight.
If people were getting shot at, and weather was going to improve for the duration of the flight, I would push down to 500ft and 1.5SM, with every intent of being ready to declare an emergency, pull in max torque at max rate of climb, transition to the instruments, and shoot an approach back to the airfield.
This afternoon my wife and I were talking about this. I work with a army vet who was in Afghanistan, he was shot once and blown up once by a suicide bomber. In the bombing he suffered brain injuries and practically had his face skinned off. I told my wife that when he passes (hopefully many, many years from now) he won't make the news. Even though he sacrificed way more for our country and received much, much less than folks like Koby did.
Don't get me wrong, I am truly sorry for the families of all involved and I pray for comfort in their time of need. But guys like my friend at work fought, were injured and some died so guys like Kobe could make millions playing a game. IMHO, our society has some serious priority issues.
It's not a competition for which death was more important, both were tragedies.
It should be understandable that a well-known personality like Kobe Bryant would get more attention on a messageboard, due to his level of fame. It doesn't erase the fact that LTC Brian Winters' passing is a sad event as well. FWIW, my BIL passed away due to ALS - it is a horrible disease - nobody should have to go through this.
Flight tracker information appears to show the helicopter flying into the hill at 150 mph. Looks like the pilot tried to gain altitude right at the end. I do not know how accurate the flight tracker info is. If you listen to the air traffic control tape you can hear the controller asking the pilot what he is doing. He asks what are you intentions? Your altitude is too low for that terrain. The air traffic controller told the pilot to follow the freeway but for some reason the pilot took a left turn into the hill. We'll get a report from the Feds in a few months. Be interested to see what they find.
I am having lunch with some pilots today. one question I have, is if there was heavy fog, why wasn't the pilot flying at an altitude about any hills or structures, to avoid this kind of event? I don't fly, but it seems like a sensible thing.
Flight tracker information appears to show the helicopter flying into the hill at 150 mph. Looks like the pilot tried to gain altitude right at the end. I do not know how accurate the flight tracker info is. If you listen to the air traffic control tape you can hear the controller asking the pilot what he is doing. He asks what are you intentions? Your altitude is too low for that terrain. The air traffic controller told the pilot to follow the freeway but for some reason the pilot took a left turn into the hill. We'll get a report from the Feds in a few months. Be interested to see what they find.
I am having lunch with some pilots today. one question I have, is if there was heavy fog, why wasn't the pilot flying at an altitude about any hills or structures, to avoid this kind of event? I don't fly, but it seems like a sensible thing.
Pilots get very disoriented easily in dense fog or no visibility situations. Once we loose our visual reference, our other senses try to fight to make us do what they think they are experiencing. So a pilot may pull back on the stick thinking they are diving and actually cause a stall, or dive when they think they are flying level (JFK Jr's accident). The question is; why didn't the pilot rely on instruments? All things considered, even with 0 visibility, the instruments should have been showing motion and altitude. He was a seasoned pilot. But there is a reason Instrument Flight Rating is more difficult to get. I had a acquaintance that was a flying instructor. He would demonstrate IFR flying by covering up the top half of the monitor when running MS Flight Simulator. I think in real airplanes the students have to fly with the windscreen blocked and navigate a flight path with no visual references. Imagine driving your car strictly on what the navigation system, or of your car isn't equipped, what Google Maps is telling you. A bit crude but same principle.
68 Road Runner (383/4speed, post car w/decor pkg) - Major Project 69 Road Runner w/472 Hemi & 4 speed. 70 Challenger R/T SE EF8 w/ V9J, U - A32 - Major Project 2023 Ford Mach 1
I'm sure we'll find out more over the coming months but right now it appears that the pilot flew into a fog bank and got lost and crashed it. The pilot was rated for instrument flying but the helicopter was going super fast, some reports say it crashed at 180 mph, so the pilot only had a few seconds to react. He might have just gotten confused and made the wrong choice. If you look at the pictures of the crash you can see that the helicopter hit pretty low on the hill. It isn't like they were trying to go over the hills or anything, they just flew into the bottom part of the hill right above where some houses are. Also, the flight path was parallel to the hills. The pilot did not need to go over the hill to get to where he was going. He was supposed to be going west and the hill was to the south. So for some reason he flew south into the hill rather than west to Thousand Oaks which is where they were going. My guess is that it is a simple as the pilot getting lost in the fog and turning the wrong direction and that was the end.
Additionally if you admit that you can’t see, and declare an emergency to have the people on the ground to help you get safely back where you’re going, you can lose your job that you have worked your entire life to earn for putting yourself in that position in the first place.
And there is also the "star" factor, famous/wealthy passengers have a way of distorting pilots good judgement, even sometimes without speaking a word.
The list is long.
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
Yeah I'm sure that factored into it. The flight had been delayed for 15 minutes while they waited for other traffic and the pilot was trying to get the girls and the coaches to their game so I'm sure he was stepping on it. When I saw that they were flying at 185 mph in the fog at low altitude over a heavily populated area I was thinking that seemed a little fast. But it was a very sophisticated helicopter and the pilot was super qualified. Something went wrong.
Here are the names of the 7 others who were killed:
Alyssa Altobelli (Gianna's basketball teammate), Alyssa's father - John Altobelli, Alyssa's mother - Keri Altobelli Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at the nearby Harbor Day School Payton Chester, a middle-school student, Sarah Chester - Payton's mother Ara Zobayan, the pilot
Yeah I'm sure that factored into it. The flight had been delayed for 15 minutes while they waited for other traffic and the pilot was trying to get the girls and the coaches to their game so I'm sure he was stepping on it. When I saw that they were flying at 185 mph in the fog at low altitude over a heavily populated area I was thinking that seemed a little fast. But it was a very sophisticated helicopter and the pilot was super qualified. Something went wrong.
More comments from the retired Army helo pilot on the other board:
"At one point ATC called him and asked something to the effect of'“Confirm you are VFR?' This is ATC calling BS that he was actually VFR in as professional a way as possible."
"I don’t think he got slow though. 168kts is REALLY fast for a helicopter. Typical cruise speed is 90-110kts. I think he got disoriented, nosed the aircraft down because that’s what his ears and body were telling him to do, and accelerated straight into the ground. Speculation though."
Also had this question posed to him, and this was his response:
Q: Would it be fair to say he was trying to save time? Quicker to fly VFR than to have to file and deal with that? Sounds like he was certified to fly instruments but not sure if it was on that type.
A: More like ‘save his job’. It is illegal to fly IMC on a VFR flight plan, and pilots get fired for putting passengers and aircraft at risk for flying in IMC when they took off VFR and was easily avoidable, because people die when they do.
I have a love hate relation ship with helicopters. Loved taking a helicopter flight rather than convoy in Afghanistan. But helicopters are very prone to crashes and if weather moves in you have to turn around quickly. Sometimes you just have to wait until the weather clears.
56 Plaza 63 D100 step side 67 Coronet, 68 Roadrunner, 69 Super Bees, 69 Coronet 500 convertible, 70 Roadrunner Post, 79 D150 360, and a severe case of Mopar a,d,d
Here are the names of the 7 others who were killed:
Alyssa Altobelli (Gianna's basketball teammate), Alyssa's father - John Altobelli, Alyssa's mother - Keri Altobelli Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at the nearby Harbor Day School Payton Chester, a middle-school student, Sarah Chester - Payton's mother Ara Zobayan, the pilot
I talked to my brother about accident today. He is retired CW4 and has thousands of hours in the Apache. He made several comments similar to ones made earlier.
As stated earlier in this thread weather can get you. Pilots get distracted (talking on radio's, looking at maps ..ect and they loose their situational awareness. Sometimes they take unnecessary chances.
I am sure it will come out after the investigation.
One thing I specifically asked him was why was he flying under Special Visual Flight Rules if he was instrument rated and had a lot of experience. He said he should not have been ….no excuse.
Here are the names of the 7 others who were killed:
Alyssa Altobelli (Gianna's basketball teammate), Alyssa's father - John Altobelli, Alyssa's mother - Keri Altobelli Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at the nearby Harbor Day School Payton Chester, a middle-school student, Sarah Chester - Payton's mother Ara Zobayan, the pilot
Four families Shattered permantly.
Sad for all
Agreed! Sad thing is, I just watched an hour of "news" and absolutely no mention of these families......however,if I would have taken a drink every time I heard Kobe, I would be sleeping it off by now.
Here are the names of the 7 others who were killed:
Alyssa Altobelli (Gianna's basketball teammate), Alyssa's father - John Altobelli, Alyssa's mother - Keri Altobelli Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at the nearby Harbor Day School Payton Chester, a middle-school student, Sarah Chester - Payton's mother Ara Zobayan, the pilot
Four families Shattered permantly.
Sad for all
I keep thinking about the older Altobelli girl. She woke up in the morning in a normal family and by 10am she was an orphan. Her mother, father and younger sister were killed in the crash. I can't even imagine what that would be like as a kid. Your mom and dad leave you home alone so they can take your sister to a ball game and then you turn on the TV and find out that they are never coming home. That would be very, very traumatic. Hopefully she has some other family near by to step in and help her.
I remember the first night of ground school, I started in the middle of it, the instructor said 95% of general aviation accidents are pilot error, I didn't believe him them and found out as I became a pilot later he was correct I had sold 2 of my drag cars at the end of 1988 and had the money and time to learn to fly so I started right away after taking a 45 minute demonstration flight at the local training facility in Apple Valley, CA I've flown over that crash site years ago in a friends airplane flying to Santa Barbara airport to pick up his two daughter who had spent the weekend their with a friend of there family, that is a very hilly region between the coast and the San Gabriel Mountain and the end of the Sierra Mountain range to the east in Antelope Valley. The Hollywood hills are to the south of that valley also so radio contact with L.A. Approach, the air traffic center for that area, is no good below the hill and mountain tops, we found that out the hard way on that trip I don't remember the MEA, minimum enroute altitude, for that area but I would bet money it is above 4000 FT. above sea level. Helicopters may have a special flight path through that valley from the San Fernando Valley west towards Santa Barbara and the Ventura areas with a lower MEA, maybe not
Mr.Cab Racing and winning with Mopars since 1964. (Old F--t, Huh)
Re: R.I.P Kobe Bryant
[Re: Dcuda69]
#2737327 01/28/2003:05 AM01/28/2003:05 AM
Agreed! Sad thing is, I just watched an hour of "news" and absolutely no mention of these families......however,if I would have taken a drink every time I heard Kobe, I would be sleeping it off by now.
I've seen mention of the others all over the Internet, and on TV too.
A person's value is not based on whether he/she's mentioned or not.
Agreed! Sad thing is, I just watched an hour of "news" and absolutely no mention of these families......however,if I would have taken a drink every time I heard Kobe, I would be sleeping it off by now.
I've seen mention of the others all over the Internet, and on TV too.
A person's value is not based on whether he/she's mentioned or not.
Did I mention people's value? What I was referring to was the lack of respect given to the others involved in this tragedy because the media makes it all about the "celebrity". Maybe you saw something about the others but I watched an hour of both local and national news and heard ZERO reference to ANYONE else....Kobe was mentioned a 100 times though as well as a handful of interviews with a bunch of other "celebs" about their reactions.
Re: R.I.P Kobe Bryant
[Re: Dcuda69]
#2737380 01/28/2011:19 AM01/28/2011:19 AM
Agreed! Sad thing is, I just watched an hour of "news" and absolutely no mention of these families......however,if I would have taken a drink every time I heard Kobe, I would be sleeping it off by now.
I've seen mention of the others all over the Internet, and on TV too.
A person's value is not based on whether he/she's mentioned or not.
Did I mention people's value? What I was referring to was the lack of respect given to the others involved in this tragedy because the media makes it all about the "celebrity". Maybe you saw something about the others but I watched an hour of both local and national news and heard ZERO reference to ANYONE else....Kobe was mentioned a 100 times though as well as a handful of interviews with a bunch of other "celebs" about their reactions.
Yup, most people and the media are only talking about Kobe because he put a ball through a hoop. Big f'ing deal. I'd be more interested in the life stories of the others. And I bet none of them is a rapist.
Re: What Helicopter Crash ?
[Re: AndyF]
#2737384 01/28/2011:33 AM01/28/2011:33 AM
One of the pilots at lunch , said the pilot asked for flying guidance- the tower tracking him and giving instructions- and the last traffic to the pilot was that he was flying too low for them to pick him up on radar. The pilot didn't respond to that last traffic.
Agreed! Sad thing is, I just watched an hour of "news" and absolutely no mention of these families......however,if I would have taken a drink every time I heard Kobe, I would be sleeping it off by now.
I've seen mention of the others all over the Internet, and on TV too.
A person's value is not based on whether he/she's mentioned or not.
Did I mention people's value? What I was referring to was the lack of respect given to the others involved in this tragedy because the media makes it all about the "celebrity". Maybe you saw something about the others but I watched an hour of both local and national news and heard ZERO reference to ANYONE else....Kobe was mentioned a 100 times though as well as a handful of interviews with a bunch of other "celebs" about their reactions.
Yup, most people and the media are only talking about Kobe because he put a ball through a hoop. Big f'ing deal. I'd be more interested in the life stories of the others. And I bet none of them is an accused rapist.
My edit.
I would suspect because the others are not celebrities, nobody would ever accuse them of being a rapist.
Since nobody is perfect, we can consider also how few apologize for their mistakes, in sizing up one's true character.
But the point no one should overlook, all lives matter.
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
Re: R.I.P Kobe Bryant
[Re: jcc]
#2737387 01/28/2011:38 AM01/28/2011:38 AM
Celebrities mean a lot to a lot of people. Be it Kobe, Prince, Dale Earnhardt, Princess Diana - many take their deaths hard. To each his own, I don't begrudge them for doing it.
Did I mention people's value? What I was referring to was the lack of respect given to the others involved in this tragedy
You'll have to forgive me because when I see a reference to "lack of respect" I infer the suggestion that the others are valued less.
Again, there are profiles of the others all over the media. The only reason we know who they are is because they were on a copter with Kobe. When was the last time there was an aviation accident and we didn't bother to learn who the perished were?
The fact is that some celebrities have meaning to people, especially in the sports tribe. They're allowed to mourn in the way they see fit. For 60 years we've been doing it with "The Day the Music Died" (but....but what about the pilot?) and other tragic events in popular culture. Just more business as usual.
Did I mention people's value? What I was referring to was the lack of respect given to the others involved in this tragedy
You'll have to forgive me because when I see a reference to "lack of respect" I infer the suggestion that the others are valued less.
Again, there are profiles of the others all over the media. The only reason we know who they are is because they were on a copter with Kobe. When was the last time there was an aviation accident and we didn't bother to learn who the perished were?
The fact is that some celebrities have meaning to people, especially in the sports tribe. They're allowed to mourn in the way they see fit. For 60 years we've been doing it with "The Day the Music Died" (but....but what about the pilot?) and other tragic events in popular culture. Just more business as usual.
That's what I was thinking when I read this. Most often when there is an aviation tragedy you only hear that it happened and the number of souls that were lost. You almost never hear anything about any of the passengers' life stories, and you typically hear one or two mentions of the crash and then nothing. So I don't know why there would be some expectation of hearing the life stories of the non-celebrities involved in the crash.
For that matter, thousands of people die every day and most of us don't hear anything of them at all, unless they happen to be a well-known celebrity. Which is probably a good thing as most families want privacy when they lose a loved one, not news coverage.
There is very little doubt in my mind the guy was disoriented in low visibility.
He was flying into rising terrain, looked like most of the hilltops around him would have been obscured.
He made the decision to turn around and fly out the say he came in.
That is the most dangerous time in an abort sequence due to weather, especially if visibility is low, and you try to maintain VFR, and don’t transition to the instruments.
Turns in general IFR are fairly difficult.
You have to watch your artificial horizon, your torque gauge, your turn and slip indicator, and your vertical speed indicator.
If you’re also trying to watch for obstacles outside, it is VERY easy to become rapidly disoriented, and put the aircraft into a rate of descent in the middle of your turn.
I’ve done it while distracted by mission critical tasks in the aircraft, and making radio calls.
Ended up 1000ft below where I should have been in what seemed like a couple of seconds.
It happens.
Thankfully I had altitude to spare, and caught it before we hit the deck.
Aviation is an inherently unforgiving profession. What would be an ‘oops situation’ in a car is more often than not fatal in aviation.
Think about all the times you’ve been driving, and thought to yourself... oops... missed your turn, caused some kind of minor incident, or major incident. In the sky. That could be the end of you."
There has been alot of information and conjecture about this tragic happening... But I do believe some further clarifications are required: 1. We were in the San Fernando Valley Sunday morning and I can confirm the fog was heavy and dense. And we do know the crash site hilly topology well as it is adjacent to a popular road (Malibu Canyon) we often take going to Malibu off the 101 freeway. 2. The route to their destination does follow the 101 freeway, as this pilot, Bryant, copter have made the same trip multiple times. But not during dense fog conditions, in SoCal we do get frequent overcast conditions but typically this occurs more frequently to the west along the nearby coast.. 3. The 15 minute holding east of Glendale was due to existing traffic @ Burbank and Van Nuys airports, and overcast conditions. Note that Van Nuys airport is 1 of the busiest with >500K take-offs/landings ever year. 4. Business jet traffic was Van Nuys can often be very busy as many studios and celebrities fly out of there. 5. Various news reports state that their destination was in Thousand Oaks, this is true. However Thousand Oaks has no airport or appropriate landing spot, instead they fly to Camarillo airport which is about 7 miles away from Thousand Oaks. Their usual MO is to land @ Camarillo and take a limo to the Academy, so yes if they were running late there would be pressure on the pilot to expedite the flight.
In closing, like many we are greatly stunned by this incredible, sad tragic as Kobe was 1 of the most popular sport and culture personalities in Southern California.
All the Sheriffs choppers were grounded at the time of this tragedy
That doesn't mean what you think it does. In LA the weather is almost always nice so the Sheriff department doesn't spend the extra money to get their pilots certified for instrument flying. So they have to stay grounded when the weather is bad. The pilot who was flying this commercial helicopter was instrument rated. And the helicopter he was flying was instrument rated. So in theory he could've navigated his way thru the fog. But there is a twist, the company that owned the helicopter didn't have a license to operate it while instrument flying so technically the pilot wasn't able to switch to instrument.
I have no idea if any of that mattered. It wouldn't matter to me if my life depended on it but I'm sure the pilot didn't want to lose his license by switching to instruments mid flight. Best guess is that the pilot hit the fog bank at full speed and got confused and when he tried to hang a 180 to get out of the fog he hit the hill. Had he turned in the other direction everyone would still be alive since it was just valley to that side. He would've known that since he had flown in that area for years but for some reason he went the wrong way.
Re: R.I.P Kobe Bryant
[Re: AndyF]
#2738308 01/31/2002:24 AM01/31/2002:24 AM
Spatial disorientation, loss of awareness which way is up, down and left and right, occurs very quickly when you loose visual refences to the horizon. As soon as that happens you need to be using the flight instruments for flying, transition immediately to them, and know where your at, what altitude and direction in degrees on the compass you need to continue flying safely. It doesn't take but a tic toc to get honk up bad in fog or clouds, I've seen the same thing happen at night when flying away from a well lit urban area into a dark undeveloped area in SO CA and AZ. Flying is not for everyone and it is not easy to do well under bad conditions
Mr.Cab Racing and winning with Mopars since 1964. (Old F--t, Huh)
I just read an article on the crash that said the limo driver showed up at the crash shortly after it happened. This is the limo driver who was waiting for them at the airport to take them to the game. So someone called the limo driver and told him to come to the crash site. I wonder if perhaps the pilot was trying to set the copter down in a parking lot and just got confused in the fog? Probably one of those things we'll find out once all the interviews are done.
Re: Pilot Error
[Re: AndyF]
#2738857 02/01/2011:11 PM02/01/2011:11 PM
I saw an article that said the flight they were on cost $10,000 round trip. Evidently Kobe was spending about $50K per week on helicopter flights. He was flying every day as a way to commute around LA.
Re: Pilot Error
[Re: AndyF]
#2738862 02/01/2011:25 PM02/01/2011:25 PM
I saw an article that said the flight they were on cost $10,000 round trip. Evidently Kobe was spending about $50K per week on helicopter flights. He was flying every day as a way to commute around LA.
10k for a RT ? Of how many miles ?
Re: Pilot Error
[Re: AndyF]
#2738865 02/01/2011:35 PM02/01/2011:35 PM
I saw an article that said the flight they were on cost $10,000 round trip. Evidently Kobe was spending about $50K per week on helicopter flights. He was flying every day as a way to commute around LA.
This was on Facebook shortly after the mishap. Problem with this vid is it is missing the first part where the helo was flying straight and level. There was one point in the vid where it appeared something fell off. The way the aircraft is coming down sure looks like he lost a tail rotor blade.
There was another vid show the help passing over some mountain bikers shortly before it went down.
the helicopter, Sikorsky S-76B with tail number N76EX formerly owned by the state of Illinois was used by Kobe as his flying limousine "black Mamba" during his playing days Island Express Helicopters re-painted it and was using it for charters mainly to Catalina Island
it was nothing new to him for travel, he spent many hours in this very helicopter
This was on Facebook shortly after the mishap. Problem with this vid is it is missing the first part where the helo was flying straight and level. There was one point in the vid where it appeared something fell off. The way the aircraft is coming down sure looks like he lost a tail rotor blade.
There was another vid show the help passing over some mountain bikers shortly before it went down.
This afternoon my wife and I were talking about this. I work with a army vet who was in Afghanistan, he was shot once and blown up once by a suicide bomber. In the bombing he suffered brain injuries and practically had his face skinned off. I told my wife that when he passes (hopefully many, many years from now) he won't make the news. Even though he sacrificed way more for our country and received much, much less than folks like Koby did.
