Simply mind boggling. Pilot with inability to fly IFR on a helo with no terrain warning system. Shame on Kobe if he was aware of this and still boarded with his daughter and friends.
Probably Kobe and company had no clue what was going on. It is up to the pilot to determine if it is safe to fly.
That is not what this means. The pilot was not qualified to fly with instruments. It doesn’t mean that the ground crew removed them from the helicopter or that the pilot didn’t attempt to use them.
This clearly explains what happened. The pilot was disoriented, and had no idea if he was going up or down...obviously he was diving, thinking maybe that he was rising.
Pilot error. The chopper was not equipped to fly in that weather, whether the pilot was qualified or not.
The pilot was certified as a flight instructor for helicopter instrument flight.
Shame on Kobe if he was aware of this and still boarded with his daughter and friends.
This is very likely what happened. Money and fame decide too often ignoring common sense.
Pilot not allowed to use IFR? I don’t think so? He was rated on IFR, but he might had bad judgment when ASKED IF to follow CA-118W towards Camarillo, I know that route. It’s pilot discretion, once you got in to IMC (instrument meteorological condition) due to poor visibility with radar vector “flight following” assist, you should already switched to IFR, supposedly SoCal would had advised Kobe’s pilot, “climb to 2,500 feet heading 190” bla-bla-blah... Unfortunately the pilot chosen to follow freeway 101 north he underestimated the fog enroute flying 1,500 feet MSL at supposedly 500 feet AGL (above the ground) the helicopter not equipped with GPWS (ground proximity warning system) if terrain at 12 o’clock it’d say, “TERRAIN, TERRAIN, TERRAIN, PULL UP, PULL UP, PULL UP,” Calabasas has 1,750 feet terrains, pilot might had panicked he climbed to 2,000 feet in to spatial disorientation by the fog, encountered downdraft as he passed the peak.