In article , DAN says...

Miloch wrote:

The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant flew through thick fog, despite Los Angeles
police grounding their own fleet, before crashing into a hillside in Calabasas,

At least they didn't kill anyone on the ground.
And they won't do it again.

....from
https://www.tmz.com/2020/01/27/kobe-...ain-slow-down/

...."The pilot was following a visual flight plan and was cleared by the tower to
proceed north, toward Thousand Oaks where Kobe was taking his daughter for a
basketball game. When he got to the Calabasas area, the fog became blinding.

As we reported, the pilot was way too low -- at 1,250 feet. The pilots we spoke
with say it's clear based on the abrupt change on the flight tracker ... the
pilot panicked and quickly ascended to 2,000 feet. We're told he cleared a
mountain range by 100 feet, and the pilots we spoke with say he was so low he
almost certainly saw the tops of the mountain.

The pilots we spoke with -- all of whom have extensive experience -- say based
on the flight tracker and the accident scene, they believe the pilot felt he had
cleared all of the mountains and was proceeding to head back when he hit another
mountain. The pilot clearly did not know there were mountains ahead because he
actually descended from 2,000 feet to 1,700 feet ... presumably to go under the
fog.

Even more baffling, we've been told the pilot was extremely experienced flying
in that area -- and was even a flight instructor. One seasoned helicopter pilot
told TMZ, he could not understand why Kobe's pilot would have maintained a speed
of 161 knots in such dense fog. One of the benefits of a helicopter is you can
go much slower -- even 15 mph -- to gingerly avoid terrain if you're uncertain.

Our sources say the chopper was sophisticated and had an altitude warning signal
to pull up, but it was too late. As we said, he was doing 161 knots and didn't
slow down. The helicopter hit the mountain at that speed.

Several of the pilots we spoke with say the pilot should have gone up to clear
the fog, rather than down. To that end, we're told the pilot could have slowed
down to almost a stop as he turned, but didn't.




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