Posted on 01/26/2020 2:53:27 PM PST by Duke C.
According to the ADSB transponder data he was following the 101 Fwy to Thousand Oaks. Then suddenly turned and dropped rapidly. Last data point shows he was dropping at 4,000 FPM which is pretty extreme...
Yeah. Not sure what forward speed may have been, and apparently it was a bit of a hike to the wreckage, too. Under the circumstances, I hope it was quick.
FlightRadar24 is not very accurate in the last seconds.
Loss of tail rotor?
There’s some pretty good info on this forum including a recording of the ATC communications.
The helicopter was on hold for 15 minutes waiting for traffic to clear around Van Nuys airport. He wanted to go VFR from that point on.
The 15 minute hold may have given him a case of get-there-itis.
https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/629197-kobe-bryant-killed-s76-crash-3.html
That seemed to be IMC and nothing where VFR should be attempted.
The term I am hearing bandied about is “controlled flight into terrain”.
Cc
I AGREE WITH YOU.
im tired of this non stop adulation ALL DAY LONG about how wonderful he was...Im not saying you have to dis him on the day he dies, but an all day maudlin adorationof this guy..and btw there is no mention of the “incident” that he paid his way out of....Because he is a leftist and hated Trump...the media has turned him into ST Kobe.
Likely news people were happy to get off the Impeachment droning!
TMZ just posted ATC from the Burbank Airport...looks like the pilot flew right into a mountain at 161 kts....even the L.A.P.D. had grounded their choppers due to heavy fog.
Why are the people in the background of that video speaking arabic?
CC
From the TV coverage, looked like Kobe’s helicopter was blue/white, not red. Not convinced yet this is really his.
If the LAPD or LASD aren’t flying, neither should you.
CC
Looks like it lost the tail rotor or something equivalent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPpkt5ka6Wg
Except when it sucks in some birds, but only for a few seconds.
Van Nuys reported overcast at 1100, while the helicopter was at 1400, so he was still in the clouds. He would have been trying to go lower to get into VFR conditions. I guess he forgot that he was also flying toward an area of elevated terrain. It’s easy for me to say that he should have stayed IFR. Many pilots have done what he did. I don’t think any lived to tell about it, though.
I wonder if that was the regular pilot or if he’d flown that route before.
If they lost power to the tail rotor, or even blades on the tail rotor (horizontal stabilizer) this would cause the helo to spin out of control and make a successful auto rotation impossible. IMHO
Compressor stall is the technical term.
Unfortunately Kobe did have tats including the names of his wife and kids:
Gianna Maria-Onore
Vanessa
Natalia Diamante
As well as:
Psalm 27
Butterfly Crown
Angel Wings
He probably added the name of his youngest before he died.
I referred to this video earlier, but rewatching it, it’s not his chopper and it’s not Calabasas. People have identified that crash as from Dubai last year.
Of course. Without that the thing would spin out of control.
How badly, I don’t know. I’m guessing the fuselage would try to match the revolution of the rotor. Which elevation would make truly suck.
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