TMZ reporting the passing of Kobe Bryant

[Clonamery]

Yesterday’s final NTSB briefing:



The final descent from 2300 feet was at a rate of 2000 feet per minute.

They slam the FAA for failing to require additional terrain support data on helicopters from prior crashes that the NTSB said would help with future incidents.

Lots of tidbits/answers to questions that quash some of the speculation and also the dismissal of a lot of video garbage that had been sent in.

 

[PP2]

Field Yates

✔ @FieldYates



Patriots head coach Bill Belichick shares some thoughts on Kobe Bryant, with whom he had developed a unique friendship and respect for.




Bill had so much respect for him, I remember when he visited the Patriots, most players were in awe of him !

This is very unusually thoughtful and heartfelt, for Bill Belichick.

 

[Clonamery]

How did this get a dislike?

Fat finger.

 

[RobertWeathers]

This is very unusually thoughtful and heartfelt, for Bill Belichick.

No question BB had a soft spot and deep admiration for Kobe.

 

[PP2]

No question BB had a soft spot and deep admiration for Kobe.

It shows in how carefully he chose his words. This was not an one-off eulogy; he definitely worked on it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It shows in how carefully he chose his words. This was not an one-off eulogy; he definitely worked on it.

I read Larry Bird's Monday night. I think Bird is a smart man but he is not a wordsmith. No way he wrote this.

 

[ViperGTS]

Still can't believe in this tragic event.

Completely and utterly avoidable as well. There are 3 basic rules in flying of any type of craft. In an emergency, and entering into inadvertent IMC is an emergency, you follow these rules.

1. Aviate
2. Navigate
3. Communicate

Nobody in the aviation community needs the NTSB or a black box etc to know what happened. He got into the clouds, got spacial D, and thought he was climbing and banking right when he was descending and banking to the left. It is an extremely disorienting thing to happen and even worse at low altitude. Of course, he was in a helicopter and could have put it into a hover, took a deep breath, contacted ATC And worked the problem from there. Instead he may have had a case of get-there-itis and got behind the helicopter just enough at a very low altitude.

Most aviation incidents are entirely avoidable. A pilot with an instrument instructor rating should have been near perfect. Instead, he got himself and 8 others killed.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

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. $$$

Do we know if there is a black box? Not all aircraft have them. And some have much more limited abilities than the airline ones.

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.

(And many more...) I like reading this stuff on a football site, of all places!

I hesitate to say anything for fear I'd say something I'm 95% sure of not 100%.

Just a tip of the hat for following the actual investigations.

By the way - if you're wondering the status of any recommendation, you can find it on their website.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I’m so much more disturbed by this than Kobe dying. Both are tragic but this is impossible to ever get over. The families will ultimately learn to live with the death of the adults who perished, but it’s impossible to come to terms with these three passing.

Yea this story has hit me harder than any i can remember, and I'm certainly not an overly emotional person. It's not just because its Kobe Bryant, it was also his daughter and everyone else on board. They probably started that ride in happy and peaceful moods, having the time of their life.. and it ends in absolute tragedy. I really hope it was quick and they didn't suffer, or have to mentally process what was happening to them.

I'm also a father for the first time so just thinking of his connection to his daughter and how he wanted the best life for her, and what promising lives everyone in that chopper had ahead of them... and to just have all of it end like that is really, really sad...

I also have a bit of a fear of flying in airplanes and helicopters. I've only flown in a chopper a couple times, but have flown in dozens of planes. I don't like the feeling of being in an aluminum tube tens of thousands of feet above the ground, with absolutely no control or even knowledge of what is happening in the operation of that plane, what decisions are being made, etc. So I think I'm maybe drawing from some of those primal fears I have inside me and this story has really hit my empathy strings harder than I can recall in a long time... I just can't seem to stop thinking of how horrific and terrifying those final moments were, and I just pray it was quick.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

A pilot with an instrument instructor rating should have been near perfect.

In my opinion this is the problem though. A perfect pilot would have avoided this accident. And no doubt the perfection of this pilot avoided many accidents. But when we’re talking passengers perfection shouldn’t be what’s required. If the safety of the passengers requires one guy being perfect than its lacking in my opinion.

 

[ViperGTS]

In my opinion this is the problem though. A perfect pilot would have avoided this accident. And no doubt the perfection of this pilot avoided many accidents. But when we’re talking passengers perfection shouldn’t be what’s required. If the safety of the passengers requires one guy being perfect than its lacking in my opinion.

Well of you have only one pilot as in this instance, whom else does it fall to? I would add any helo flying over 1 passenger should have a copilot.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Neither of the two suggestions by the NTSB would have prevented this accident based on what they’ve said so far.

 

[ViperGTS]

Yea this story has hit me harder than any i can remember, and I'm certainly not an overly emotional person. It's not just because its Kobe Bryant, it was also his daughter and everyone else on board. They probably started that ride in happy and peaceful moods, having the time of their life.. and it ends in absolute tragedy. I really hope it was quick and they didn't suffer, or have to mentally process what was happening to them.

I'm also a father for the first time so just thinking of his connection to his daughter and how he wanted the best life for her, and what promising lives everyone in that chopper had ahead of them... and to just have all of it end like that is really, really sad...

I also have a bit of a fear of flying in airplanes and helicopters. I've only flown in a chopper a couple times, but have flown in dozens of planes. I don't like the feeling of being in an aluminum tube tens of thousands of feet above the ground, with absolutely no control or even knowledge of what is happening in the operation of that plane, what decisions are being made, etc. So I think I'm maybe drawing from some of those primal fears I have inside me and this story has really hit my empathy strings harder than I can recall in a long time... I just can't seem to stop thinking of how horrific and terrifying those final moments were, and I just pray it was quick.

Not to be the bearer bad news, but after having been through numerous safety briefings over the years and having access to the non public mishap reports...they had about 10 seconds of realization the end was near. That type of decent of 4000 fpm is aggressive and the bank angle was probably about 45 degrees. It would be very noticeable. The ending was quick, but I won’t get into the details of what happens after impact like that. The end was quick, the last 10 were a lifetime.

 

[PP2]

I think that BB's admiration of Kobe was the recognition that Kobe was a master tactician of the game of basketball, just as BB was the master tactician when it came to coaching, and Brady to quarterbacking.

This is a good article and it echoes a lot of the discussion that we've had on this forum about trying to show the intelligence and strategic aspect of football- a lot of us have gotten pretty tired of the dumbed down narrative being peddled on TV and in print. Hence the creation of the all-22 thread, and other threads to show how much of football is strategy.

Kobe wanted to change that perception about basketball as well.

Lowe: Kobe's greatness was both beautiful and maddening

 

[PP2]

GW shot by none other than #24.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Well of you have only one pilot as in this instance, whom else does it fall to? I would add any helo flying over 1 passenger should have a copilot.

I consider the autopilot a second pilot. Supposedly this helicopter had one (not common in helicopters). When I have an autopilot in a helo I usually program my route to cover low ground if the weather is questionable or it’s night. If I encounter weather I can couple to the autopilot and to the route and climb. I can focus on just the climb, power, and the terrain while the auto pilot handles the attitude and airspeed. I can use my IPad to show terrain ahead of me. Because inadvertently entering a cloud is very disorienting, and because helicopters are inherently unstable my backup plan is to use the auto pilot for keeping the wheels down- worst case scenario. Then I can monitor it. Auto- pilots aren’t perfect but they are a tool that can make things safer when things go bad.

It’s not as big a deal in an airplane because airplanes are more stable and don’t need to operate low level. I have to pretty much put pressure on the yoke to take a plane out of stability.

Yes I can probably pull it off by hand and I have but that’s relying on my own perfection and I am not perfect. Another pilot is also great, and obviously better weather decisions are also great but any good pilot carrying passengers should in my opinion have a plan, a back up plan, and an emergency plan.

There’s a good chance this pilot inadvertently banked (or maybe intentionally) when he lost sight of the ground. The auto pilot will not do that. I also think planning to turn a 180 in the clouds at low altitude is a bad idea in a helo. But I know guys who plan to do that (to return to where they could see). If that was intentional by the pilot than once again he’s counting on his own perfection.

 

[Bonzo]

No question BB had a soft spot and deep admiration for Kobe.

For certain.

Belichick and Kobe are pals, because of course they are

 

[festy1986]

Neither of the two suggestions by the NTSB would have prevented this accident based on what they’ve said so far.

If he had that machine that tells the pilot when you're too close to the ground and the reports that the pilot barely missed one hill by a 100 feet are true then I think that would of made a huge difference.

 

[ViperGTS]

I consider the autopilot a second pilot. Supposedly this helicopter had one (not common in helicopters). When I have an autopilot in a helo I usually program my route to cover low ground if the weather is questionable or it’s night. If I encounter weather I can couple to the autopilot and to the route and climb. I can focus on just the climb, power, and the terrain while the auto pilot handles the attitude and airspeed. I can use my IPad to show terrain ahead of me. Because inadvertently entering a cloud is very disorienting, and because helicopters are inherently unstable my backup plan is to use the auto pilot for keeping the wheels down- worst case scenario. Then I can monitor it. Auto- pilots aren’t perfect but they are a tool that can make things safer when things go bad.

It’s not as big a deal in an airplane because airplanes are more stable and don’t need to operate low level. I have to pretty much put pressure on the yoke to take a plane out of stability.

Yes I can probably pull it off by hand and I have but that’s relying on my own perfection and I am not perfect. Another pilot is also great, and obviously better weather decisions are also great but any good pilot carrying passengers should in my opinion have a plan, a back up plan, and an emergency plan.

There’s a good chance this pilot inadvertently banked (or maybe intentionally) when he lost sight of the ground. The auto pilot will not do that. I also think planning to turn a 180 in the clouds at low altitude is a bad idea in a helo. But I know guys who plan to do that (to return to where they could see). If that was intentional by the pilot than once again he’s counting on his own perfection.

Well in the military we operated fixed wing down at 2-300 agl at night on NVGs. Of course had terrain mapping radar and FLIR to help us along. Even then a mistake made 5 miles before a ridgeline it would have been game over. There were times I wished I was in a helo since you can just throw it into a hover fairly quickly and not slam into a mountain.

Funny story. We were up in Alaska for an exercise. It was dark, and I mean dark up in the mountains. We were down in a valley and the valley curved to the right. As we were coming up to the turn, I called out a climb to clear terrain. It had been pre briefed but the pilots forgot I guess. I called it again and finally in the turn we started climbing. As we got further a land bridge type of terrain was right there. Had we stayed at our current altitude we would have flew right into it. Thank god for satellite imagery and route study that was pounded into our brains.

I can only imagine all the stuff you helo guys have to watch out for. Power lines probably being at the top.

 

[ViperGTS]

If he had that machine that tells the pilot when you're too close to the ground and the reports that the pilot barely missed one hill by a 100 feet are true then I think that would of made a huge difference.

My old plane we had a “*****ing betty” terrain warning system. “Terrain terrain, pull up, pull up.” Half the time we would turn the audio off because she thought we were always going to crash. In this instance it probably would not have helped and helos operate low as a rule anyways. Nope, he should have just stopped and figured things out.

The low terrain was to his right and he went left. He got confused.