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Forum nameOkay Sports Archives
Topic subjectPilot didn't have a massive heart attack or anything like that.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=21&topic_id=109421&mesg_id=109618
109618, Pilot didn't have a massive heart attack or anything like that.
Posted by allStah, Thu Jan-30-20 03:47 PM
It was simply a matter of weather conditions and how those weather conditions were acted on by the pilot. I wouldn't call it human error, in the sense of being incompetent or not knowing how to perform as a pilot. But the circumstances or conditions that they were flying in made for a complex situation, where the pilot had issues navigating properly.

- The Helicopter was not equipped with a terrain warning system which was confirmed. The system would have alerted the pilot that it was approaching a hill. However, based on information from a pilot who used to be Kobe's pilot, even with the alert system, he still wouldn't have been able to avoid the hill or other bigger hills that were along the flight path.

- The Helicopter agency was a VFR ( Visual Flight Rules) and not an IFR ( Instrumental Flight Rules) agency. However, the pilot was licensed for both, but even though he was licensed for both, it does not appear he had a lot of experience with IFR. So when he couldn't get assistance from a nearby flight tower for VFR, because he was flying too low, he probably switched to IFR and got into an aerial issue with that, or felt uncomfortable with IFR and tried to get out of it. He immediately descended to avoid a cloud layer, and that is when he flew into the hill. It was descending at 2000 feet per minute.Right before the crash he told flight tower that he was trying to avoid a cloud layer.

- Also, it's not unusual for commercial helicopters to fly through fog. Medical and law enforcement agencies have different standards and flight regulations due to having patients, etc on board. This was all stated by Kobe's former pilot.

Kobe was a frequent helicopter flier, and the pilot was a good pilot, who kobe had flown with before, and Kawhi even vouched for the pilot.

Helicopter accidents or crashes are extremely rare. We don't know what the conversations or perceptions were prior to the flight. Did the pilot feel he could get through it, was he insistent about it?. Did he want to turn around? Was Kobe insistent on getting to the game asap, etc, etc? We don't know and will never know.

So no one can be blamed or targeted. Just an unfortunate situation, which will be used to create safer rules and regulations with Heli.flying.