TMZ reporting the passing of Kobe Bryant

[RobertWeathers]

Not all. A typical Cessna 172 for example won’t have one. Most passenger carrying aircraft do but some is based on requiring it if it was manufactured after a certain date. Some is based on passenger carrying capacity. The S-76 can carry 13 passengers I think. Looking at some of the regulations:

Interesting.

Just reading and it is unknown if the Sikorsky Kobe was in had a BB.

JFK Jrs had a black box but I guess it was rare. Some idiot removed the battery.

 

[brdmaverick]

Different sports and all that, but kind of weird to think that Kobe was only 41 and had been retired for years, and Brady is still going even though he's older.

Definitley tragic though. Such a shame.

 

[fightingirish595]

Different sports and all that, but kind of weird to think that Kobe was only 41 and had been retired for years, and Brady is still going even though he's older.

Definitley tragic though. Such a shame.

Kobe played 20 years in the pros too. And honestly what he did was probably more physically demanding on his body than what Brady does

 

[scout]

Not a Tanguay fan, but how was it ridiculous?

When someone dies, an individual leaves condolences. They should refrain from negativity or not bother to post. Tanguay's tweeted a negative reference which was classless. But then what would you expect?

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Sure. They had a helicopter crash last June (pilot only thankfully) in NYC in the rain/heavy wind by an experienced pilot. Crashed into the roof of the AXA building. No one else dared fly in that weather. Happens when money pushes safety and common sense out of the way.

In 2018, a tour helicopter in NYC with no doors so the tourists could take photos crashed into the Hudson River. All the tourists who were harnessed in place, died. The pilot was able to escape. Nothing has changed, they’re still flying these helicopters despite ignoring in-place regulations. $$$

Are you sure. I think the doors off flights were stopped. I think they believe one of the straps caught the fuel shutoff off valve in flight in the tour aircraft.

 

[XLIX]

One theory I heard (as well as came up with myself but also heard other people suggest) is that the passenger(s) may have been putting pressure on the pilot to get them there. I know 100% for a fact that this happens. No idea if it happened here and ultimately the pilot is the one responsible for the safety of the vehicle, but it's IMHO believable.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

One theory I heard (as well as came up with myself but also heard other people suggest) is that the passenger(s) may have been putting pressure on the pilot to get them there. I know 100% for a fact that this happens. No idea if it happened here and ultimately the pilot is the one responsible for the safety of the vehicle, but it's IMHO believable.

I could see Kobe pushing the pilot to take off, and the ATC allowing the flight because of his celebrity status.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Regarding the plane crash, I have nothing of any actual substance to add and am by no means any type of aviation guy. But that won't stop me.

In 8th grade we had a science teacher who gave us some long glass straws to bend. I don't remember why. He told us to be cautious and to heat the glass with a flame, bend it, and then wait until it had cooled down entirely (a few minutes) before going onto the next bend point to heat. He said what would happen is no one would get burned until they stopped focusing on the caution and waiting for everything to cool, and then people would start getting overconfident, cutting corners on the time needed to cool, and eventually we would all burn ourselves (these were of course very minor, but it felt kind of like getting shocked.)

Sure enough, for about ten minutes everyone starting shaping their glass straws with zero incidents. Sure enough after ten minutes a couple of people burned themselves. And after about 30 minutes, everyone was constantly accidentally burning their fingers, overconfidently thinking it didn't matter if the glass had cooled yet because you could just avoid that part of the glass, and everyone was focused on the shape and creation, rather than the caution of getting burned which was initially the focus.

So that would be my Occam's Razor, totally uneducated guess, of what may have happened here. Probably have flown through clouds like this so many times, often even in much worse conditions, many years and many flights. And someone with less experience may have been much more cautious. Or maybe it was one of 20 other things like mechanical failure, etc. Just wanted to post something vaguely resembling wisdom in looking at how an experienced pilot could crash a helicopter.

Pretty good guess for non-aviation. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re close to correct when it all comes out.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

One theory I heard (as well as came up with myself but also heard other people suggest) is that the passenger(s) may have been putting pressure on the pilot to get them there. I know 100% for a fact that this happens. No idea if it happened here and ultimately the pilot is the one responsible for the safety of the vehicle, but it's IMHO believable.

It’s possible, I heard this tournament had a hard start time and they were getting close to it. It’s also possible the pilot put the pressure on himself just knowing people were counting on him. If he went IFR to the nearest airport they could have drove to the tournament but he probably would have been late. Maybe that was in their minds, I don’t know.

It’s odd but I’ve flown people who would put pressure on me to fly in bad weather. People who were passengers. You would think if the pilot says it could be unsafe most people wouldn’t want to get on the aircraft but IDK- some people are just weird like that.

Most however would accept my judgement. But the passengers may not have even known how bad or dangerous the weather was.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Not a Tanguay fan, but how was it ridiculous?

The timing was poor to say the least. And again, it didn’t make any sense.

 

[mosi]

Has there been a more shocking death in the sports world since Roberto Clemente? Maybe Len Bias?

Munson maybe. Call me crass but Clemente was a saint who died attempting to help others. Bias overdosed on crack. Kobe was damn lucky he was good with a ball in his hands...

I think people grew up with Kobe and he represents a generation of people who now feel age creeping in.

 

[Drewski]

Munson maybe. Call me crass but Clemente was a saint who died attempting to help others. Bias overdosed on crack. Kobe was damn lucky he was good with a ball in his hands...

I think people grew up with Kobe and he represents a generation of people who now feel age creeping in.

Quite a bit to unpack in this one.

1. What applies to Kobe that makes him “damn lucky he was good with a ball in his hand” that quite literally doesn’t apply to nearly every other athlete in maybe the history of American team sports?

Would we even know of Clemente’s humanitarian efforts, especially given the time he lived, were it not for his sport “celebrity”?


2. Kobe is the MJ to the people who didn’t see MJ play. I was 15 the last time MJ won a title. There are kids in college today who never saw him with the Bulls. Watch the reaction of MSU’s Cassius Marsh last night when Tom Izzo tells him on the floor post game about the news.

I don’t know many people who would describe kids in college as “a generation of people who now feel age creeping in”

On the other hand, if I represent the age cohort where the divide of MJ and Kobe exists....I turned 37 on Friday... so... OK Boomer?

 

[Clonamery]

Are you sure. I think the doors off flights were stopped. I think they believe one of the straps caught the fuel shutoff off valve in flight in the tour aircraft.

They’re still on.

 

[Bella*chick]

Someone on another forum was remembering an interview Kobe gave a long time ago where he talks about hitting all the big life milestones early: marriage and kids, career and he laughed and said he’d probably retire early too. It’s just eerie to think about, given that he died so young.

 

[mosi]

Quite a bit to unpack in this one.

1. What applies to Kobe that makes him “damn lucky he was good with a ball in his hand” that quite literally doesn’t apply to nearly every other athlete in maybe the history of American team sports?

Would we even know of Clemente’s humanitarian efforts, especially given the time he lived, were it not for his sport “celebrity”?


2. Kobe is the MJ to the people who didn’t see MJ play. I was 15 the last time MJ won a title. There are kids in college today who never saw him with the Bulls. Watch the reaction of MSU’s Cassius Marsh last night when Tom Izzo tells him on the floor post game about the news.

I don’t know many people who would describe kids in college as “a generation of people who now feel age creeping in”

On the other hand, if I represent the age cohort where the divide of MJ and Kobe exists....I turned 37 on Friday... so... OK Boomer?

Geez, keep your panties on. All I am saying is that there is a difference between Kobe's death and someone like Clemente or Munson and maybe Len Bias. They died when they were still playing. And the point with Kobe and the same applies to Big Ben is simple.

 

[thecore762]

Keep this thread classy folks, people have died in a tragic event and all some people seem to bring up is the bad.
We all make mistakes, imagine someone bringing up your mistakes after such tragic event.

Be human and be kind to each other.

 

[Drewski]

Geez, keep your panties on. All I am saying is that there is a difference between Kobe's death and someone like Clemente or Munson and maybe Len Bias. They died when they were still playing. And the point with Kobe and the same applies to Big Ben is simple.

Forgive tone of that post. It reads differently than the manner in which I wrote it.

Absolutely true the others were still playing and that adds a magnitude of the event.

 

[PP2]

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Kobe helicopter tried to climb to avoid clouds before crash

The pilot was identified as Ara Zobayan. Homendy said the pilot had reported 8,200 hours of flight time by July 2019. He was commercially certified as a pilot and certified as a flight instructor, she said.

Several aviation experts said it is not uncommon for helicopter pilots to be given such permission, though some thought it unusual that it would be granted in airspace as busy as that over Los Angeles.

But Kurt Deetz, who flew for Bryant dozens of times in the same chopper that went down, said permission is often granted in the area.

“It happened all the time in the winter months in LA,” Deetz said. “You get fog.”

The helicopter left Santa Ana in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, shortly after 9 a.m., heading north and then west. Bryant was believed to be headed for his youth sports academy in nearby Thousand Oaks, which was holding a basketball tournament Sunday in which Bryant’s daughter, known as Gigi, was competing.

Air traffic controllers noted poor visibility around Burbank to the north and Van Nuys to the northwest. At one point, the controllers instructed the chopper to circle because of other planes in the area before proceeding.

The aircraft crashed about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. When it struck the ground, it was flying at about 184 mph (296 mph) and descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute, according to data from Flightradar24.

Waldman said the same thing happened to John F. Kennedy Jr. when his plane dropped out of the sky near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 1999.

“A lot of times somebody who’s doing it for a living is pressured to get their client to where they have to go,” Waldman said. “They take chances that maybe they shouldn’t take.”

Bryant had been known since his playing days for taking helicopters instead of braving the notoriously snarled Los Angeles traffic. “I’m not going into LA without the Mamba chopper,” he joked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2018, referring to his own nickname, Black Mamba.

David Hoeppner, an expert on helicopter design, said he won’t fly on helicopters.

“Part of it is the way they certify and design these things,” said Hoeppner, a retired engineering professor at the University of Utah. “But the other part is helicopter pilots often fly in conditions where they shouldn’t be flying.”

Jerry Kidrick, a retired Army colonel who flew helicopters in Iraq and now teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, said the helicopter’s rapid climb and fast descent suggest the pilot was disoriented.

 

[1960Pats]

Regarding the plane crash, I have nothing of any actual substance to add and am by no means any type of aviation guy. But that won't stop me.

In 8th grade we had a science teacher who gave us some long glass straws to bend. I don't remember why. He told us to be cautious and to heat the glass with a flame, bend it, and then wait until it had cooled down entirely (a few minutes) before going onto the next bend point to heat. He said what would happen is no one would get burned until they stopped focusing on the caution and waiting for everything to cool, and then people would start getting overconfident, cutting corners on the time needed to cool, and eventually we would all burn ourselves (these were of course very minor, but it felt kind of like getting shocked.)

Sure enough, for about ten minutes everyone starting shaping their glass straws with zero incidents. Sure enough after ten minutes a couple of people burned themselves. And after about 30 minutes, everyone was constantly accidentally burning their fingers, overconfidently thinking it didn't matter if the glass had cooled yet because you could just avoid that part of the glass, and everyone was focused on the shape and creation, rather than the caution of getting burned which was initially the focus.

So that would be my Occam's Razor, totally uneducated guess, of what may have happened here. Probably have flown through clouds like this so many times, often even in much worse conditions, many years and many flights. And someone with less experience may have been much more cautious. Or maybe it was one of 20 other things like mechanical failure, etc. Just wanted to post something vaguely resembling wisdom in looking at how an experienced pilot could crash a helicopter.

I can't believe that you mentioned getting a shock in a story about an 8th grade science teacher. I have a vivid memory of my 8th grade science teacher in 1963 using a small generator (very similar looking to a pencil sharpener) to do a similar experiment.

He had the whole class form a circle and hold hands. He then put a lead from the generator into the hands of the kids on each end with instructions that nobody should let go. When he started to slowly turn the handle there was one kid who decided to let go anyway. He and the kid he let go of both got shocked.

The teacher then took each of us individually and had us hold the leads as he shocked each one of us. Luckily, I got mine late enough to learn that if I didn't grip the lead tightly it would fly out of my hand as my body convulsed. It did.

Imagine what would happen to a teacher that would do that now?