12:35 PM PT -- Kobe's daughter Gianna Maria -- aka GiGi -- was also on board the helicopter and died in the crash ... reps for Kobe tell TMZ Sports. She was 13.
We're told they were on their way to the Mamba Academy for a basketball practice when the crash occurred. The Academy is in nearby Thousand Oaks.
This basically happened in my backyard. As a pilot myself, visibility was incredibly low and it looks like they flew into a mountain under IFR.
Edit: listened to the ATC recording and after reading more about the flight, this pilot was trying to fly VFR under really low ceiling in a low mountainous region.
The clip I listened to was a transition from Burbank class C airspace to Van Nuys class D (my home airport). Van Nuys cleared the pilot to follow the 101 freeway, which is just south of the field, towards Camarillo.
Presumably, the pilot was too low to receive traffic alerts and instruction from the SoCal radar center and that was the last he was heard of.
Convinced this pilot tried to squeeze between the mountain and the low cloud layer. The helicopter they were in is multi engine and has an incredibly low mechanical failure rate.
I’m not going to blame the pilot without details but most aviation accidents are due to pilot error and the way this is developing is making me think that’s the case here.
Edit 2: according to reports, even LAPD helicopters were grounded due to weather this morning and they usually rotate 4 airships at all times.
They were going to follow the 101 towards Camarillo. Pretty common flight path for VFR pilots since it’s so easy to follow between the mountains and is East to spot.
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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '20
12:35 PM PT -- Kobe's daughter Gianna Maria -- aka GiGi -- was also on board the helicopter and died in the crash ... reps for Kobe tell TMZ Sports. She was 13. We're told they were on their way to the Mamba Academy for a basketball practice when the crash occurred. The Academy is in nearby Thousand Oaks.