Pilot in Kobe Bryant helicopter crash should not have flown into clouds, investigators say

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into a foggy Calabasas hillside one year ago, killing Kobe Bryant and eight others aboard, became disoriented while flying in cloudy conditions, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday noted that pilot Ara Zobayan suffered spatial disorientation while he navigated through clouds and foggy-covered terrain on the Jan. 26, 2020, flight from Orange County to Camarillo.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Zobayan was flying under visual flight rules yet the “pilot continued his flight into clouds.” Zobayan was “legally prohibited” from flying through cloud cover but did so anyway, Sunwalt said.

The Sikorsky helicopter and was not in a controlled flight pattern when it crashed into the hillside near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at 9:45 a.m.

NTSB member Michael Graham said Zobayan ignored all his training and noted that as long as helicopters continue to fly into clouds while using visual flight rules “a certain percentage aren’t going to come out a live.”

Despite prior recommendations from the NTSB that helicopters be outfitted with crash-proof flight and voice recorders, the Sikorsky that Bryant was flying on did not have such equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration did not require such features on the helicopter, nor was it required to have a safety management system.

Investigator Bill English told the board that Zobayan informed air traffic control that he was “climbing to 4,000 feet” to get above the clouds. But English said the pilot was experiencing spatial disorientation because the helicopter banked to the left, away from the 101 Freeway, while communicating with the controller that it had descended.

Zoboyan misperceived altitude and acceleration, and suffered what is known as a somatogravic illusion, according to Dr. Dujuan Sevillian. He said the acceleration of the chopper could cause a pilot to sense the aircraft was climbing when it was not.

“Our inner ear can give us a false sense of orientation,” Sevillian said, noting that a lack of visual cues while being surrounded by clouds worsens the problem and the pilot suffers what is known as “the leans.”