Kobe Bryant's Last Flight: What We Know About His Helicopter's Route | Visual Investigations

This is the

flight

path of the

helicopter

carrying Kobe Bryant and eight other people, which crashed near Los Angeles. It is a common

route

, covering an area heavily traveled by planes every day. That's why we wanted to understand how, despite this, such an accident could occur. Using a chartered

helicopter

,

flight

tracking data and images from the day, we have retraced the flight path to examine conditions that may have led to the crash. The helicopter took off from John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Their destination, another airport close to the sports academy, owned by Bryant. The first half of the flight is uneventful.

The terrain, here in the Los Angeles basin, is flat. That makes it relatively easy to navigate, even in cloudy weather. Bryant himself made the trip routinely. On the day of the accident the weather was good in this area. There are four miles of visibility. In 13 minutes, the helicopter passes through downtown Los Angeles, passes Dodger Stadium and begins to enter the San Fernando Valley. The ground begins to rise. That day, air traffic controllers tell Bryant's pilot to remain in a holding pattern over the city of Glendale. They circle for more than 10 minutes, while the rest of the air traffic is cleared.

It is at that moment that a retired pilot on the ground films the helicopter flying overhead. We can see in the images that the sky is considerably cloudy. The pilot received special clearance to continue in low-visibility weather... ...and flies toward the San Fernando Valley, following the highway system along the edge of the foothills. We can see that the densely populated terrain is still low and flat. The weather for our charter flight is clear, but images from the day of Bryant's flight show that visibility has become extremely limited. One reason: if we pause and stop, we can see that the Pacific Ocean is just on the other side of these hills.

Cold, moist air coming off the water and hitting the mountains can quickly form a thick, low cloud layer. With a lower ceiling and higher mountainous terrain, there is now a much smaller path to flying safely. Approximately three minutes before the accident, the helicopter begins to fly down Highway 101. It is a common

route

. The road is a distinctive landmark that is easy to follow and passes through a low point in the foothills, making it easier for pilots to stay under cloud cover. Bryant's pilot had requested a “flight following,” where controllers track an aircraft to assist the pilot in difficult conditions.

Just before the crash, the ground controller tells the pilot that he is too low to follow. The pilot radios that he is climbing to avoid cloud cover. The helicopter quickly gains altitude. At approximately 2,300 feet, it veers off Highway 101 and crashes into the side of a hill. The debris field is about 500 feet long. Investigators said the helicopter may have missed the top of the hill by 20 to 30 feet. They have not yet determined the cause of the accident.