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Author: Jewls Krueger
On the morning of January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter carrying NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter Gianna, six family friends, and the pilot crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California, in thick fog. All nine people on board were killed instantly. The crash triggered a global outpouring of grief, a year long federal investigation, and a string of civil lawsuits.
Kobe Bryant - Creative Commons: Keith Allison
Kobe Bean Bryant was a five time NBA champion, an 18 time NBA All Star, and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee who had spent his entire 20 year professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was 41 years old and the father of four daughters with his wife Vanessa. His 13 year old daughter Gianna, known as "Gigi," was a promising youth basketball player.
The other passengers were close family friends. John Altobelli, 56, was the longtime head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. He was traveling with his wife Keri and their 14 year old daughter Alyssa, who was Gianna's teammate. Sarah Chester, 45, was the mother of Gianna's other teammate Payton, 13. Christina Mauser, 38, was a mother of three and an assistant coach for Kobe Bryant's youth basketball team. The pilot was 50 year old Ara Zobayan, the chief pilot for Island Express Helicopters and Bryant's regular pilot since 2015.
The group was on its way to a girls basketball tournament at Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy in nearby Thousand Oaks.
The crash site immediately after the crash happened - Public Domain
The flight departed John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California at approximately 9:06 a.m. PST, bound for Camarillo Airport in Ventura County. The pilot was operating under Visual Flight Rules, meaning he was required to maintain visual contact with the ground. The Los Angeles Police Department had grounded its own helicopters that morning due to dense fog.
As the helicopter approached the Calabasas hills along the U.S. Route 101 corridor, the cloud cover thickened and visibility dropped sharply. Around 9:45 a.m., the helicopter's flight tracking system stopped updating. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Zobayan attempted to climb above the cloud layer but became spatially disoriented. While reporting that he was climbing to 4,000 feet, the helicopter actually banked sharply to the left and descended at around 4,000 feet per minute. It struck a hillside at roughly 184 miles per hour, scattering debris across an area the size of a football field. All nine occupants were killed on impact. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified Kobe Bryant and three other victims by fingerprints on January 28, and identified the remaining five through DNA analysis by January 30.
Further Reading
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash for more than a year. On February 9, 2021, the board unanimously ruled the probable cause was "the pilot's decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in the pilot's spatial disorientation and loss of control." Contributing factors included Island Express Helicopters' inadequate safety management oversight, Zobayan's self induced pressure to complete the flight, and "plan continuation bias." No mechanical failure was found.
NTSB investigators at the crash site - Public Domain
On February 24, 2020, Vanessa Bryant filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Island Express Helicopters and the estate of Ara Zobayan, joined by three other victims' families. In June 2021, the parties reached a confidential settlement.
A second lawsuit, filed in September 2020, targeted the Los Angeles County Sheriff's and Fire Departments after several deputies and firefighters took and shared grisly cell phone photos of the crash site. In August 2022, a federal jury awarded Vanessa Bryant $15 million and co plaintiff Chris Chester $15 million. In March 2023, Los Angeles County agreed to a final settlement of $28.5 million in the case.
The crash site sits in the Santa Monica Mountains in unincorporated Calabasas, California, north of U.S. Route 101 and just east of Las Virgenes Road. The hillside is privately owned but is reachable via a network of public hiking trails, most commonly by way of the Bark Park Trail near the Las Virgenes Road exit and the connecting New Millennium Trail. The hike is roughly two miles round trip with a climb of about 350 feet in elevation.
In the years since the crash, the site has become an informal pilgrimage destination, particularly for Los Angeles Lakers fans. Visitors regularly leave flowers, jerseys, basketballs, candles, and handwritten notes at the hillside. On January 26, 2022, the second anniversary of the crash, sculptor Dan Medina installed a 150 pound bronze statue of Kobe and Gianna Bryant at the site for a single day. A larger version of the statue was later installed at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles outside the Lakers' home court.
The trails are open to the public during daylight hours and require no permit. The terrain is rough and exposed, and summer temperatures often exceed 90 degrees. Please come prepared with water, follow all posted signage, pack out anything you bring in, and remember that this is private land and a site of profound loss for nine families.
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