LOS ANGELES (AP) The pilot flying Kobe Bryant and seven others to a
youth basketball tournament did not have alcohol or drugs in his
system, and all nine sustained immediately fatal injuries when
their helicopter slammed into a hillside outside Los Angeles in
January, according to autopsies released Friday.
The reports by the Los Angeles County coroners office provide a
clinical but unvarnished look at the brutality of the crash.
One of the most popular sports figures in Los Angeles and a
celebrity around the globe, Bryant was broken beyond recognition
when his body was found outside the wreckage of the chopper, His
remains had to be identified by his fingerprints.
The report made it clear: Bryant and the passengers almost
certainly were dead in an instant due to blunt trauma.
“These injuries are rapidly if not instantly fatal”wrote Juan
Carrillo, senior deputy medical examiner, in Bryants report.
The crash that killed the 41-year-old retired Los Angeles Lakers
star, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna – clad in the jersey she
would have worn to play that morning, with the word Mamba on the
front and her last name on the back – pilot Ara Zobayan and the
others is considered accidental.
Bryant was headed from his Orange County home to his daughters
tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks on the
morning of Jan. 26. The group, including one of his daughters
coaches, and two of her teammates, encountered thick fog in the San
Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.
Zobayan, an experienced pilot who often flew Bryant, climbed
sharply and had nearly succeeded breaking through the clouds when
the craft took an abrupt left turn and plunged into the grassy, oak
studded hills below.
When it struck the ground, it was flying at about 184 mph (296 kph)
and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute. The
impact caused a crater and scattered debris over an area the size
of a football field in the Calabasas hills. Flames engulfed the
wreckage, but burns on the bodies were determined to have occurred
after death.
Bryants body was found on one side of the wreckage and his
daughter was found in a ravine on the opposite side.
The autopsy noted Bryant’s tattoo of a crown on his right shoulder,
above where his wifes name, Vanessa, was imprinted. On the lower
right arm were the names of three of his four daughters: Bianka
Bella, Natalia Diamante and Gianna Maria-Onore, the daughter who
died with him.
The youngest girl, Capri Kobe, only 7 months old when her father
died, is not mentioned.
The only drug in Bryant’s system was methylphenidate, which is sold
under the brand name Ritalin and used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not concluded what
caused the crash on the outskirts of Los Angeles County but said
there was no sign of mechanical failure in the Sikorsky S-76. A
final report is not expected for months.
The aircraft did not have a device called the Terrain Awareness and
Warning System, which signals when an aircraft is in danger of
hitting ground. While the National Transportation Safety Board has
recommended the system be mandatory for helicopters, the Federal
Aviation Administration only requires it for air ambulances. Both
California’s senators have called for the FAA to mandate the
devices in the wake of the tragedy.
The others killed were Orange Coast College baseball coach John
Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa; Christina
Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter’s basketball team; and
Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton. Alyssa and Payton were
Gianna’s teammates.
Bryant is the only NBA player to have his team retire two numbers
in his honor. He was selected last month for the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame. A ceremony is scheduled for late August
though it may be delayed until at least October because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Bryant and his daughter were honored at a star-studded public
memorial Feb. 24 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles,
with 20,000 in attendance at the arena where Bryant spent most of
his two-decade career with the Lakers. The date 2/24 corresponded
with the No. 24 jersey he wore and the No. 2 worn by Gianna.
The same day, Vanessa Bryant filed a lengthy lawsuit alleging that
Zobayan was careless and negligent to fly in the fog and should
have aborted the flight. She has also filed a claim, a precursor to
a lawsuit, against the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department
after deputies allegedly shared unauthorized photos of the crash
site.
Zobayans brother, Berge Zobayan, has said in a court filing that
Bryant knew the risks of helicopter flying and his survivors arena
entitled to damages from the pilots estate, while the helicopter
company, Island Express, says they are not responsible for damages,
calling the crash, among other things, an act of God and an
unavoidable accident that was beyond their control.
—
This story has been corrected to fix an incorrect reference to the
number of people on board.
—
Associated Press Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami
contributed.
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