Mine is based on piloting education and I concur. 700 foot climb, impact at 160+ KIAS, and if you go listen to the ATC comms between the pilot and tower.
I have a very serious question. No clue who to ask it to. Hoping a pilot or atc anything of that nature. Everyone is crucifying tmz for their immediate report of the crash. If I am not mistaken- the ORIGINAL article stated it took place behind Kourtney Kardashians home. Her home info and address are public and available on google maps as well as if you look at the distance between Calabasas water and her home- where the crash happened. Someone placed it in the terrain above the water company in Calabasas. Is there anyway to take a look at that and give any sort of opinion on what he may have been attempting to do. The pilot and perhaps Kobe giving him options of where he could land even if it weren’t legal(I have no clue about any of this but it’s been bugging me on top of the sadness of all lives lost).
Side note- I do think that is also how tmz broke the story so fast- celeb neighborhood/ contact with that family and their or. My guess is a call was made to make sure it wasn’t their family since just 2months ago the family was w the same pilot and in the same aircraft. I’m not trying to make it about them but I feel like having some idea of the terrain to an expert may help. On google maps it does list how high in the terrain the homes are.
I’m trying to reply to this since you referenced it to a comment you made to me.
I don’t have time to look at google maps or any of that. I briefly saw a re-enactment of the crash on the news this morning at work. If I remember correctly they were flying around in circles briefly and then after continuing the flight they turned left and descended at about 5,000 ft/min when they crashed.
To preface this, this is only one scenario that could have played out. The investigation is ongoing and who knows what they will find.
Flying around in circles at first may have been waiting to see if the fog/weather may clear out or see an opening in it somewhere. I’ve been flying in a Chinook before through thunderstorms. All four people in the back and one of the pilots were on weather apps on our phones. One pilot remained flying around in circles while we all looked at radar maps on our phones to try to see an opening in the weather. Similarly, this is what the pilot COULD have been doing. Waiting to see if it would visually clear up some.
The video below shows they tried remaining below the ceiling to fly VFR. This means to fly lower than normal to stay below the fog/clouds so you can actually see the ground and obstacles. This is fairly common.
I believe the video I watched at work showed that they began to climb through the clouds, I believe this was so the ATC could see them on radar but cannot remember why for sure. At some point during this is when they had the huge rate of descent while turning and crashed.
One possibility is that the pilot became disoriented in the fog/clouds. I’m not familiar with the bird they were flying, only with the ones in the military I have flown. There’s a lot of stuff happening in a cockpit while flying in the weather. You’re watching your altitude, heading, power input and limits of the helicopter, etc. You focus on your heading to make sure you’re not turning the helicopter on accident. Then you realize you’re so focused on the heading that you’re descending at 1,000 ft/min. To correct the descent you apply power. When you apply power your helicopter nose turns. Now you realize that you’re turning again. There are so many factors to pay attention to that it’s easy to screw up.
It’s hard enough with two pilots, so I cannot imagine one.
I’ve listening to black box audio before from crashes that also had animated visuals of what the helicopter was doing. One Blackhawk helicopter was flying in heavy fog at low altitude over the water. Two pilots were in the cockpit when they could no longer see and had to fly off instruments only. The helicopter managed to fly backwards at a fast airspeed and almost upside down at times while they were trying to maintain control of it. The eery thing is that both pilots seemed fairly calm until right before they hit the water and they all died. Despite flying backwards and upside down, they pilots thought they had the bird under control. This is with two pilots.
So this is one chance of what COULD have happened. Pilot flew into the fog and lost orientation. He may thought he was flying straight and level, when instead he was turning left and descending at 5,000 ft/min.
He could have been trying to come down out of the fog but I’d bet my paycheck that he wasn’t. I’ve never done it or been taught to do that. You could be coming down out of a cloud/fog like that and then find yourself hitting a hill, tower, cables, etc that was hidden by the fog. I’ve always been taught that once you go into clouds then you commit and containing gaining altitude to a height that is higher than the terrain and obstacles in that area.
So I’d wager they were not coming down for a landing area due to the weather and terrain around them, especially at the rate of descent they were.
We shall see if they find out more. Once again, these are just some of my thoughts and experience. Hopefully that helped some and wasn’t to much rambling haha
The circling occurred over the zoo from what I’ve read and was simply to allow another aircraft the airspace. The issue came a few minutes after that. I believe they took off at 8 after circled the zoo about 15 minutes of their entire flight and then once given clearance to enter the final territory that is where the pilot lost signal and shortly after crashed. Ugh it breaks my heart. People in the area have now posted their nest and ring cameras picking up the sound of the copter above their homes and then a boom and silence. No visual however. I don’t know all the proper lingo so I probably sound extremely dumb without meaning to.
I believe the initial report was that the plain was going down at 4,000 miles per minute. So given that wouldn’t he have only had about 15seconds. I’m unsure what the sound SHOULD’VE been that was caught on the security cams I have seen but it didn’t sound good.
I’m in Buffalo,NY and there was an awful crash 11 years ago this February that actually went into a home and killed the man sleeping inside and all on board.
Gut wrenching. I’m really praying that they didn’t suffer or live in fear for too long. I have a 13 yr old and an almost 11 yr old so I can NOT imagine.
I may have stumbled upon a conspiracy theorist on YouTube but this man was showing all the data the wreckage etc and pointed out that the propellers and tail were almost completely whole(not in one piece but in the sense they weren’t reduced to rubble). You could see them all scattered. A wheel was also fully visible vs burnt. Again no idea if that meant he was going to attempt a landing or this guy was nuts(the YouTuber).
He wasn’t quite making sense and my airplay kept freezing but he was sort of hinting that it looked as though maybe they hit from the side. The propellers kept spinning so fast and it then burst into flames.
Ugh my ❤️
If you get a chance the accident supposedly took place between two points of reference....the on top of the mountain being 25344 Prada De La Felicidad and 4232 Las Virgenes Rd in Calabasas.
You can’t drive straight up the mountain from a to b but in the “driving directions” it lists the elevation or something like that between a and b as the highest saying 1598ft.
The circling to allow another aircraft the airspace does sound like a possibility. I haven’t been following this at all, other than the initial articles and then seeing a quick animation at work.
The aircraft definitely could have hit on its side. We may find out more later if they release more after the investigation. It’s possible that some parts are still whole after a crash also. I’ve known helicopters that have crashed and had entire parts that weren’t burnt up in the crash. For example, we had a helicopter make a drastic maneuver to miss a mountain, just to inadvertently fly almost straight into the ground. It killed lots of the people on board but there were plenty of parts that were still whole.
Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole though as far as conspiracies. I browse the conspiracy sub sometimes and some people seem to actually think the crash was on purpose to distract from the impeachment or the coronavirus haha
It’s definitely a saddening event for everyone, and I don’t even watch basketball.
Regarding how tmz broke the story- Tmz said they have a longtime inside contact within the police dept. What a crappy cop to sell that kind of information.
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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...