2 Comments

1. 

   Jim the Realtor on January 29, 2020 at 7:17 am

   The helicopter that crashed in foggy conditions Sunday in Calabasas, killing all aboard including Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, took a roughly one-minute dive before slamming into a hillside, National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday, Jan. 28. The aircraft missed clearing the hill by 20-30 feet, they said.

   The chopper did not have a Terrain Awareness and Warning System that could have alerted the pilot to the hillside even though the NTSB had recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration that all similar helicopters have the equipment after deadly crashes in 2004 and 2005, NTSB investigator Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference. The NTSB had also recommended that all transport helicopters built before October 1991 have a cockpit voice recorder or a cockpit image recorder with the ability to record cockpit audio and crew communications.

   The Sikorski S-76B that crashed Sunday would have qualified as it received an airworthiness certificate in May 1991, FAA records show. But, Homendy said, the FAA failed to act on both the NTSB recommendations. “That would have helped us significantly in our investigations,” she said of the voice recorder. A preliminary report will be issued in about 10 days. A final report in 12 to 18 months is expected to explain why the Sikorsky plummeted.

   FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said after the news conference that the FAA requires the Terrain Awareness and Warning System for air ambulances. He also provided website links to the FAA’s response to that recommendation as well as the flight recorder recommendation.

   The bodies of all nine victims have been recovered from the scene of the crash, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said. Three bodies had been found after the crash on Sunday, and on Tuesday the agency said the remaining six were recovered on Monday. The coroner’s office said Tuesday it had positively identified the bodies of Bryant, 41, Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, 56, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa; Sarah Chester; and pilot Ara Zobayan. The others have been identified by family and friends as Bryant’s daughter Gianna Bryant, 13; Christina Mauser, a coach at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar; and Chester’s daughter, Payton Chester.

   Homendy also provided these details on the investigation:— Regarding the fog, she said: “There’s a lot of variability there. We’re focused on what the weather conditions were on Sunday for this flight and we have a weather expert on staff currently looking at the weather and decision making for flying in the weather that day.”

   A computer tablet that had flight-mapping software and a cellphone were recovered. They have been sent for analysis. Airworthiness certificate, registration and weight-and-balance sheets were among the documents recovered.

   The NTSB wrapped up its on-site investigation Tuesday. The families of the victims were briefed on the investigation. Homendy declined to discuss those briefings.

   The pilot had flown that same Orange County to Camarillo route the day before the crash.

   Also on Tuesday, video from a drone over the site released by the NTSB showed the devastating trail of wreckage.

   The flight began at John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:08 a.m. Sunday and crashed near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at about 9:45 a.m. The pilot made a steep climb attempting to get out of the fog moments before the fatal descent.

   Bryant and his party were headed to Camarillo Airport and then to the Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park, where several basketball games were scheduled that day.

   The NTSB video, released without sound or commentary, has flyover views from Monday of the debris field of the helicopter. One view begins with pieces of rotor blades in the foreground, trailing to the burned fuselage.

   Aviation experts talked about the crash on Monday.

   The Sikorsky made what appeared to be a “panic climb” at a rate of 1,406 feet per minute about 30 seconds before it stopped sending data, said Robert Katz, a Dallas-based commercial airplane pilot and certified flight instructor who has been flying since 1981.

   “This helicopter is probably the best machine money can buy… the weak link in the chain is going to be the pilot,” Katz said.

   But private pilot Adam Alexander said Zobayan was an excellent pilot. “There would be nobody better you would want flying a helicopter at that time, Alexander said Monday.

   “He’s as qualified a pilot and instructor that you can ask for,” he said.

   https://youtu.be/GvjzFWbJJxo

2. 

   Jim the Realtor on January 29, 2020 at 7:42 am

   This news commentary makes it sound like the descent was a few seconds, not a minute, and that the 20-30 feet wouldn’t have made a difference:

   https://youtu.be/jfJS8s7-hW4