The United States - and sports fans around the world - began crying over Kobe Bryant exactly one year ago.
After noon on January 26, 2020, the news networks already had enough information to confirm that the 41-year-old Lakers star had died around 10:00 a.m. in a plane crash in Calabasas, California.
His daughter Gianna, 13, and seven other people were also killed when
the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter
they were traveling in on their way to a sporting event crashed on a hill northwest of Los Angeles.
After the commotion, the questions came.
How could a routine trip end in tragedy?
How could an experienced pilot and a helicopter using even Queen Elizabeth II fail?
Whose mistake was it that ended the life of a five-time NBA champion and one of the best players in the history of the American league?
The last year has been one of intense investigation into the reasons for the failure.
As pilot Kurt Deetz, who previously transported Bryant on the same plane that crashed, told CNN: "(Helicopters) don't just fall out of the sky."
Investigators at the scene of the accident in Calabasas California on January 26, 2020.
Under iron pressure, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a nearly 2,000-page report in mid-June in which it said the ship plunged into dense fog before crashing and that, for some reason, the pilot, Ara Zobayan, reported in his last communications
that he was gaining altitude, when in fact the helicopter was falling.
It has also been a year of tragedy after tragedy.
Kobe's widow, Vanessa Bryant, was sued by her own mother, who demands money from her.
Vanessa and relatives of the other seven victims are also fighting in court against the helicopter company and Los Angeles County, whom they blame for letting the pilot fly amid unsafe weather conditions.
On February 9, the NTSB is expected to publish its final report on the accident and the cause to which it is attributed.
Meanwhile, this is what is known of the possible causes of the crash, a year later.
The minutes before crashing
At 8:39 a.m. the morning of the accident, the pilot, Ara Zobayan, sent a text message to the small group of people coordinating Bryant's trip to tell them that the craft was ready to go.
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Half an hour later, the helicopter was in the air.
The journey began at the John Wayne-Orange County Airport to Camarillo, California, where the passengers would be taken to a youth basketball game in nearby Thousand Oaks.
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The helicopter headed north.
When he was over the hills near Calabasas, between 400 and 600 feet above the ground, the air traffic controller asked the pilot, "Are you going to keep flying low all the way to Camarillo?"
Zobayan replied, "Yes sir."
Minutes later, the spacecraft began heading into increasingly mountainous terrain, where visibility that morning was poor.
The pilot said it was rising above the clouds, at 4,000 feet.
However, the NTSB report said the helicopter was not even more than 1,600 feet above the ground at the time, just before leaning to the left and rapidly collapsing, crashing into a hill.
Did the fog blind the pilot?
The researchers said poor visibility may have caused Zobayan to "misperceive" the angles at which he was descending and leaning, and to become disoriented, something that can happen to pilots during adverse weather conditions.
The NTSB mentions the possibility that you have experienced a phenomenon known in aviation as somatographic illusion or spatial disorientation, in which gravitational forces can confuse the body in the absence of visual cues.
This means that the pilot could have falsely felt that the helicopter was going up, when in fact it was collapsing.
Kobe Bryant played for 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and was a five-time NBA champion.
AP
The weather on the morning of the accident has been a key component of the NTSB investigation.
Its weather report spans 394 pages and includes satellite images, surface observations, photos, maps, and other data.
On the night of Saturday, January 25, the day before the accident, the ground team of the Island Express Helicopters Inc. company, asked the pilot in a text message how he saw the weather.
"Does the weather look good tomorrow?"
The pilot replied that it would not be “the best day” but that
it was not “as bad as today
.
”
The next day the pilot wrote: “It should be fine”.
Several witnesses in the crash area told NTSB investigators that they heard the helicopter fly "normally" but could not see it "because there was a lot of fog and low clouds."
It later emerged that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department had lowered their own helicopters due to low clouds and fog in the area.
The helicopter was missing important components
As part of the investigation, a key piece has been the remains of the helicopter, as well as its maintenance records.
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At first, the NTSB said there had been "no evidence of an internal fault" that could trigger a catastrophe like the one that occurred. "Other experts who reviewed the report said there were no signs of physical problems with the spacecraft.
However, the helicopter lacked two important components.
It did not have the flight recorder known colloquially as a black box, which has made investigations into what happened before the accident more difficult.
It also didn't have the terrain alert system, known as TAWS, which notifies pilots when they are approaching the ground in a way that is not normal.
Under current law, none of these parts are required for large turbine helicopters like the one in the accident, an issue that congressmen have wanted to correct through the Kobe and Gianna Bryant Helicopter Safety Bill, which has been stuck in Congress in the health emergency due to COVID-19 and the elections.
Did the pilot have a history of misconduct or had he used drugs?
Ara Zobayan had worked with the Island Express company for 10 years.
He was one of Kobe Bryant's favorite drivers.
A report of his autopsy published in May 2020, which included toxicology tests, showed no traces of alcohol and no drugs.
Zobayan was required in 2015 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2015, after he
flew without authorization into airspace where he had poor visibility.
It is not known if it carried passengers.
At that time he was already working for Island Express.
Vanessa Bryant and the lawsuits
At the end of February, a few weeks after the accident, more than 20,000 people gathered at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to mourn the loss of Kobe.
In parallel, his widow, Vanessa Bryant, was filing a 72-page lawsuit in a Los Angeles County court.
Vanessa Bryant with the athlete Michael Jordan after speaking at an event in tribute to Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, on Monday, February 24, 2020 in Los Angeles
In the lawsuit, the athlete Vanessa Bryant's widow said the accident could have been prevented and that the pilot had shown poor judgment during the flight, citing known weather conditions.
He also accused the Island Express company of "negligence" and said Bryant "was killed as a direct result" of the actions of his pilot.
But this lawsuit is only the first of nearly a dozen, arising from the accident.
Vanessa Bryant also sued Los Angeles County and the Sheriff's Department, alleging negligence, invasion of privacy and causing emotional distress after officials from that deputy corps allegedly shared unauthorized photos of the accident.
For their part, the relatives of the other seven victims, who were trainers and traveled with their children, also joined the widow's legal claim against the aviation company.
The company, in turn, sued two air traffic controllers, for their role in communications with the aircraft before the accident.
Family "extortion" and a "frivolous" lawsuit
One of the most striking lawsuits in the legal plot that has followed the deadly accident is that of Vanessa Bryant's mother, Sofia Laine, against her own daughter.
According to the lawsuit, Laine seeks financial support from her daughter, alleging that she worked without pay as a "personal assistant and nanny" for the Bryant family.
He also assures that, before dying, Kobe promised to "take care" of the 68-year-old woman for the "rest of her life."
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"Unfortunately, Kobe Bryant's promises could not be consummated as he has now passed away, and Vanessa Bryant took every step she could to nullify and cancel all the promises that Kobe Bryant made to (Laine)," says the demand.
"Vanessa Bryant did not intend to honor" any of the "agreements and promises" that were made to her, she notes.
Vanessa has accused her mother of trying to "blackmail her" and has called the lawsuit "frivolous" and "shameful".
When will all these lawsuits be resolved?
The NTSB report is not enough evidence in the courts for judges to use it as a basis for their decisions in each case.
For this reason, all lawsuits remain in their early stages, while the NTSB concludes and publishes its final investigation into the causes of the accident.
It is common when there is an airplane accident that investigations take time, because
the investigation process is characterized by its meticulousness.
The Board is expected to issue this report on February 9.
