Armenian pilot blamed for death of American basketball star Kobe Bryant

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that poor decision making by pilot Ara Zobayan was the likely cause of the helicopter crash that killed NBA star Kobe Bryant and eight others in 2020. Writes about it USA Today.

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The NTSB discovered that Armenian American Zobayan was flying according to visual flight rules, which means he should have seen where he was heading, but decided to fly into thick clouds where he lost his spatial orientation. Although he was taught to fly only with the help of the instrument panel, Zobayan did not receive permission to fly in such conditions that day.

“By most indicators, the interviews we conducted, the pilot usually thought things through and was respected. He was the chief pilot,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said during a four-hour board meeting about the results. “I think it shows that even good pilots can find themselves in bad situations.”

Investigators also blamed Island Express Helicopters, which operated the flight, citing "inadequate analysis and oversight of safety management processes." However, they noted that the company's security protocols, while flawed, were legal under current FAO regulations.

“We do not conclude in any way through the investigation that Island Express was not a safe operator,” said lead investigator Bill English.

Anthony Brickhouse, a former NTSB investigator who is now an assistant professor of aerospace security at Embry-Riddle Aviation University, said the NTSB's findings are not surprising given the publicly available information on the case. The difference between visual flight and instrument flight is often "fatal," he said.

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“Once spatial disorientation occurs, things happen quite quickly, and the likely result is loss of control,” Brickhouse wrote.

The highly anticipated findings of the NTSB, the government agency tasked with investigating traffic accidents, came just over a year after a Sikorsky S-26B helicopter crashed into the hills near Calabasas, California on January 2020, 76.

All nine people on board were killed in the crash, including Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; John and Keri Altobelli and their daughter Alyssa; Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton; Christina Mauser, assistant coach and Zobayan. They flew to the Thousand Oaks for a youth basketball game.

Experts and investigative documents have long pointed to spatial disorientation as the likely cause of the crash. In the absence of visual cues, pilots are sometimes tricked by gravitational forces into thinking they are flying in one direction when lurching the other way.

From 2010 to 2019, the NTSB detected 184 fatal plane crashes related to spatial disorientation, including 20 involving helicopters.

1800 pages of evidence

While additional training and simulation exercises could have helped Zobayan in this case, the NTSB board members repeatedly questioned the pilot's decision to fly into hilly terrain in poor visibility. He could land a helicopter, perhaps at nearby Van Nuys airport, and wait for conditions to improve.

“There was an airport about 12 miles (19,3 kilometers) away, a real airport, but you can also land a helicopter in a lot of confined spaces,” Sumwalt said at a news conference. “So there were opportunities along the way to change course and prevent a crash by simply landing.”

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The NTSB began investigating the accident shortly after it happened, over a year ago. Investigators conducted nearly two dozen interviews and collected over 1800 pages of evidence, including weather analyzes, maintenance records, training logs, eyewitness reports and emails.

They even took video footage from cameras set up behind youth baseball fields in the area to determine visibility that morning.

The basic facts of the flight converged quickly: The plane took off from John Wayne Orange County airport just after 09:00 local time, flew north, circled to make way for air traffic at a nearby airport, and then followed the highway into the hills near Calabasas. ... The morning was hazy, and as the helicopter entered the more volatile terrain, Zobayan informed air traffic controllers that he would climb to greater altitudes in order to rise above the clouds. Instead, the helicopter turned left and raced toward the ground.

Bryant, 41, became known for traveling by helicopter both during his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers and after his retirement. He saw this as a way to avoid frequent traffic jams in and around Los Angeles. Previously, he flew in a crashed plane and regularly traveled with Zobayan.

Major version of the crash

In the weeks following the crash, the NTSB identified a lack of evidence of a catastrophic engine failure and focused on the weather and the pilot's actions.

The board also indicated that there is no evidence that Zobayan was pressured by the company or Bryant to complete the flight. The NTSB also said that air traffic controllers on duty that day did not contribute in any way to the crash.

These issues have taken on seriousness in federal and state courts, where the families of the victims have filed a series of lawsuits against the helicopter company and, in some cases, against Zobayan's property. Later, the helicopter company filed a counterclaim with air traffic controllers.

According to Christopher Odell, a partner at law firm Arnold & Porter and an expert on aviation disputes, while determining the probable cause of the NTSB is not allowed in court, it usually helps shape the trajectory of the related litigation.

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“The NTSB findings provide a lot of guidance to the parties,” Odell said. — A jury may decide differently than the NTSB on the facts in terms of who is responsible. But the NTSB does a very good job, and the investigators are very experienced and well trained, and they will probably get to the bottom of it.”

Ultimately, the purpose of the NTSB investigation is to develop safety recommendations and propose them to the FAA, which then decides whether they should be adopted.

Who is Zobayan

In the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot certification database, Zobayan is listed as a certified pilot who received a commercial pilot license in 2007, writes The Sun.

He is also a certified flight instructor for helicopter pilots.

Also, 50-year-old Obayan had the right to fly in conditions of limited visibility. As of July 2019, it had 8 hours of flight time.

Zobayan for the first time decided to become a pilot in 1998, after he made a sightseeing tour of the Grand Canyon, and "immediately realized that he wanted to become a pilot," ABC News.

“He worked hard at other companies to save enough money to pay for his education. “Flying was the passion of his life,” Group 3 Aviation said about the pilot.

The pilot and flight instructor had no accidents before Sunday's crash, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in California. Zobayan received his first private pilot license on January 21, 2001, and his commercial pilot license on December 3, 2007, writes Daily Beast.

But long before that, he learned to fly at Group 3 Aviation, a private flight school in Van Nuys, California. Zobayan came to the small academy in 1998 and quickly became part of their community, according to school president Claudia Lowery. “This is where Ara learned to fly,” she said. — Ara worked here. We have known him since 1998. He is not only a dear friend to us, but also family."

After learning to fly, Zobayan worked as a flight instructor. One of his students, Darren Kemp, told the newspaper that Zobayan briefly worked as Bryant's personal pilot. “Bryant doesn’t let anyone fly with him except Ara,” Kemp said. Kemp and Zobayan were close, the student recalled how his teacher helped him get through a difficult divorce.

Zobayan later hired a pilot at Island Express Holding Corporation, a family-owned helicopter charter company that contracted Catalina for local tours and was listed as the owner of the helicopter. By the time of the crash, this helicopter, Sikorsky S-76B, was about 30 years old. It was owned by the state of Illinois for several years, after which it was sold to Island Express in 2015.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• January 26 Former Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Player Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles. Together with him, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven more people on board died.
• The helicopter with Kobe Bryant on board ruled by Armenian American Ara Zobayan.

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