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      01-29-2020, 04:27 PM   #98
bimmer456
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony1s View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Salty Dog View Post
I think some of the agencies that were grounded had in part to do with the fact that they need to see to perform their primary function as opposed to Bryants helicopter that was a point A to point B exercise, so instrument flight would be all that was required.

Police, Rescue and New helicopters rely on seeing to do their primary function.
Yea, I don't know. I know nothing about flying helicopters. What I know is that...

A flight tower told the pilot he was flying too low to be picked up on radar
Another flight tower recording says "You're still too low level for flight following at this time"
The pilot contacted Burbank Airport at 9:30am (15mins before the crash) not sure why he contacted them
The helicopter then circled the LA zoo at least 6 times at a very low altitude, prsumably the pilot was doing that to wait for the fog to clear
9:40am the helicopter turned towards a mountain
9:45am it crashed into it
The helicopter was traveling at 176mph, which is just about the top speed the aircraft can go (178mph)
Looks like he lost control of the aircraft as it veered left and fell from the sky into the hill. Could have been a bird strike as there was no visibility so even with instrumented flying it is dangerous when you have zero visibility. Kobe may have been putting pressure on the pilot to get there on time so he took the risk with the fog and somehow lost control and made a mistake. God forbid there was some sort of struggle in the cockpit we have no recorder so we'll never know.
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