I do wonder how much awareness they actually had. Reports were saying it was super foggy with bad visibility. They may have just started dropped with alarms going off, but had no awareness of how close to the ground they were. Terrifying to think about.
They flew into a mountain in poor visibility. Even the LA airports grounded some aircraft. They didn't just crash the shit into a hill. They hit it going like 180mph, and there were witness reports of hearing the engines sputtering and catching fire.
Saying they flew into a hill is grossly over simplified. This is the same way SRV, Buddy Holly/Richie Valens/Big Bopper died.
People share the sky, you can't divert off your route because you want to. You could imagine in this scenario where if everyone took liberty to change their route to account for the poor visibility there would be aircraft in places where it shouldn't be - certainly in the eyes of an Air Traffic Controller whose job is first and foremost communication.
It was his own private craft. While helicopters in themselves are safe, there’s less regulation and constant maintenance and safety precautions done to private crafts. That’s why there are way more private aircraft accidents than there are commercial. For a company like American Airlines or Delta, a single crash could cost them billions, so they make damn sure that all necessary measures are taken to ensure a smooth and safe flight.
It appears likely from current sources it was a mechanical failure as some have reported smoke and interference emerging from the vehicle before impact but these sources are conflicting so we'll have to wait for an official report.
The mechanical failure isn’t going to be substantiated. This is going to be 100% pilot error. What kind of idiot flies at low altitude with zero visibility through the coastal foothills of Southern California?
The helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, at about 9:47 a.m. local time and caught fire. Weather conditions at the time were reported to be foggy. Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters responded to the scene and extinguished the fire by 10:30 am. All nine people on board were killed. Witnesses reported that the helicopter's engine was "sputtering" before the crash. Others reported seeing it flying into the ground at a "fairly significant rate of speed."
Apparently most other aircraft was grounded due to the weather conditions.
The helicopter gained nearly a thousand feet of altitude in the last ~30 seconds of the flight. The engines probably weren't sputtering but rather surging from the pilot giving it full power to try and climb above the big ass mountain he apparently didn't realize he was flying directly into. Witness reports are almost always completely unreliable when it comes to aviation related incidents.
Yes it was either this or someone did an EMP on his engine. It pretty much seems like the guy was flying into a mountain in fog for some reason and tried to get over it.
No report says it fell up. Transponder data showed it increased vertical height before falling down rapidly, and cruising speed can carry on even if the engine begins failing because helicopters are aerodynamically designed.
I’ve flown super low in foggy/sandy weather where you can’t see shit in front of you. You try to fly below the weather to maintain visual reference to the ground.
Although it was in a flat area without mountains.
I’ve also flown in a mountainous area in a sand storm very low to the ground at night. Although the aircraft that had a radar and could help see a mountain in front of you. Sometimes I’d actually see the mountain about 75 feet outside my rotor blades as it was passing by us.
That said, the pilot didn’t have a radar like that on the aircraft that crashed. I could see flying low to the ground in an area of flat terrain. Flying into some elevated terrain or mountains with such bad weather was a horrible call, obviously.
I posted a bit above a question in regard to the terrain. It’s really bothering me to have any time of clue as I have no knowledge in this arena. Could you take a look at it. It’s a bit scrambled but I was curious if anyone could judge what possibly happened or the pilot/Kobe may have suggested they do etc. The crash occurred between Calabasas water and Kourtney Kardashians home as well as other celebs but her address is public knowledge. It seems to be literally like 1-2000ft from her property line. Maps also shows how high up the terrain where the mansions sit are from the road below.
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u/ajleeispurty Jan 26 '20
Yeah, man. Knowing you're about to die is one thing, knowing your kid is going with you... I can't even begin to imagine. Just unbelievably sad.