More details emerge following the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others in January.
Kobe Bryant’s personal assistant, Cate Brady, disclosed that the basketball icon rescheduled his flight from 9:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. the night before the crash. The altered timing resulted in the helicopter going down just before 10:00 a.m., ultimately flying into blinding fog conditions that might have subsided if the original schedule had been maintained.
“On that day, Sunday, I actually changed the departure time the night before, around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m., because Bryant wanted to attend another team’s game before his own,” shared Brady, who had been Bryant’s assistant since May 2019, as reported by the Daily Mail. “The departure was originally set for 9:45, but the night before we changed it to 9:00 a.m.”
Investigators believe that the pilot, Ara Zobayan, became disoriented due to the thick fog, which began to dissipate as the morning progressed. Although fog was present initially, it had cleared 45 minutes later.
When asked if Bryant ever pressured the helicopter company to fly in challenging weather, Brady declined to comment: “I can’t answer that because it never occurred. If there had been any issue, I would have volunteered to drive him – I’ve been Kobe’s assistant long enough. But we never faced such a situation, so I’m not sure of the answer.”
Reports suggest that in the moments leading to the crash, Zobayan may have misjudged the aircraft’s orientation, erratically stating to air traffic control that they were climbing to 4,000 feet when they were descending to the ground. “Calculated angles indicate that the pilot may have misconstrued both pitch and roll angles,” as outlined in one report. “Upon final descent, in response to [air traffic control], the pilot indicated that they were ascending to four thousand feet.”
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, has filed a lawsuit against the pilot, helicopter company, and the helicopter’s owner.
