Kobe Bryant and 3 others killed in Helicopter Crash.

Watching Colbert last night.
I would suggest people see if they can pull up the show after the monologue. His father and brother died on an airplane crash. So, it hit him close. But he talked with a helicopter pilot and was told that they aren't required to have black boxes. Sounds like a good time to have them installed as mandatory equipment.

Here's why pilot ddin't file IFR.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/u...ification.html

I had a feeling it was going to be pilot error related in one way or another

My guess is the pilot rarely or never flew that route before. It was not part of his routine. Dense fog, 9 passengers is considerably more weight, no instruments and very likely non stop jabbering simply threw him him off his game. Hovering over the zoo for several minutes should have been the first clue to turn back. He was burning a lot of fuel with poor visibility. As we know now it was a bad decision to continue. Oddly I don’t hear anything about funerals.

Or they should have landed in Griffith park or at a local high school field, it's always better to abort when something isn't right

My guess is the pilot rarely or never flew that route before. It was not part of his routine. Dense fog, 9 passengers is considerably more weight, no instruments and very likely non stop jabbering simply threw him him off his game. Hovering over the zoo for several minutes should have been the first clue to turn back. He was burning a lot of fuel with poor visibility. As we know now it was a bad decision to continue. Oddly I don’t hear anything about funerals. Originally Posted by FunMonday

Flew the route at least once a week during the kids’ basketball season. Though I did sober about the weight, but I didn’t know enough about this helicopter to know it you can fill the tanks and the seats.

Somebody told me that area where Kobe helicopter crashed, is same as that opening M.A.S.H scene on TV.

Somebody told me that area where Kobe helicopter crashed, is same as that opening M.A.S.H scene on TV. Originally Posted by Purlie Victorious

Not sure about that but they did crash where the Kardashian clan lives. Go figure

For those with aviation interest, the NTSB issued a preliminary report on 2/7, located here:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/...ive-Update.pdf
What I found most curious is Figure 2b, which is a 3-D reconstruction of the last part of the flight from ADS-B data. Why the descending left turn at the end of the flight? Nothing the pilot said to ATC indicated he was going to do that, and nothing they found so far indicated mechanical malfunction. Any ideas or theories? I suppose we'll have to wait for the final report (which usually takes more than a year).

Pilot error

Lost situational awareness and thought no hills were to his left and was turning around to get out of the clouds. Descended to get out of the clouds, too, I suspect. If he’s looking at flat freeway before he goes in the soup, he forgets about the hills off to the side. Maybe can’t see them enshrouded in clouds.

Bottom line, gotta-get-there-itis.