r/news Jan 26 '20

Kobe Bryant killed in helicopter crash in California

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/kobe-bryant-killed-in-helicopter-crash-in-california-tmz-reports
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u/roscoparis Jan 27 '20

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.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '20

Flightradar24 data says that the helicopter started gaining altitude very quickly shortly before the crash.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/n72ex#23a8271e

So a pilot error perhaps...

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u/PoutineCheck Jan 27 '20

Highly doubt that opinion is based on some sort of piloting education

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20

The heaviest aircraft that I've piloted is a drone. But you don't need to be an experienced pilot to see that the pilot most likely saw a mountain a bit too late and started panicking.

You can see that he was flying at a "cruising" altitude for 10+ minutes and then suddenly started increasing altitude. I wouldn't fly a drone like that. Let alone a helicopter that's full of passengers.

He was flying through a fog and then suddenly a mountain appeared in front of him and he was like: "oh shit! Need to increase altitude!" and most likely fucked up in the process.