I was skeptical because it was TMZ, but it’s being confirmed from multiple sources now.
Awful news. Never liked the guy, but absolutely respected the talent.
I never minded him, if people wanted him to shut up they should’ve stopped him on the floor…nobody could.
Pretty crazy the events surrounding him over the past 24 hours with LeBron passing him in scoring just last night.
Apparently his daughters were on the helicopter too. Sad
It has been confirmed that his daughters were not on board.
I just have to say, growing up in Los Angeles during his heyday this comes as a significant loss. He was most definitely the athlete of my generation. I got to see him play in the finals and against the Jazz at least once. As a Jazz fan I often cheered against him but I had an enormous amount of respect for what he was able to accomplish in and out of the league. He was a flawed man, but I viewed him as a consummate professional in the class of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. I don’t think professional sports has sustained a loss this great or tragic in a long time, if ever. My thoughts are with his family at this time. What an unbelievable tragedy.
Now it’s reported one daughter was on board.
Friend texted me a YouTube video titled “This Could Possibly be video of the actual crash.” I think it’s
a fake as the background mountains look more like desert Southwest and the helicopter was not black. In the video the Helicopter was spinning out of control on its way down and then exploded into a huge fireball on impact. It must have lost power to the rear anti torque rotor. It’s pretty graphic. Because I’m not sure of authenticity and the fact that it’s pretty horrific, I’m not posting it.
Sheriffs are saying there was a total of 9 aboard: pilot plus eight passengers. In addition to Kobe and his daughter, they’ve confirmed a baseball coach from Orange Coast Community College was aboard.
Grew up a Laker fan. RIP Kobe.
I saw that video, it’s from Dubai from two years ago.
I listened to the tower audio just now, I flew helicopters about ten years ago and can follow the dialogue. Pretty busy day in low visibility, the pilot stayed in VFR meaning he has at least 3 miles of visibility. IFR conditions were going on, instrument, not sure why he stayed in VFR. The Van Nuys tower gave pressure readings which can greatly affect the altimeter. If not adjusted can read a lot higher than you suspect.
Very touching interview with Jerry West, who was the GM that brought Kobe to the Lakers and mentored him as a young player.
Have never flown in a helicopter and not excited to do so. When they have issues, they just go down and typically no one lives. They say you can auto rotate and land them, but I have never read of any who have and lived.
I rode in a few over my years in the military. Flew in a Chinook, a Huey, and a Blackhawk. Got to parachute out of the Huey. That was 4 seconds of fear because unlike jumping from a plane, the the forward motion of the copter makes you notice the fall.
Most copter pilots I know like to say helicopters don’t fly - they beat gravity into submission. To the auto rotate, I had an old commander who survived an auto rotation landing in a Huey in Vietnam. He said the only reason he survived was the copter hit in a rice paddy.
Thanks for that clarification on the autorotate.
Some interesting info here related to our discussion:
I’ve heard quite a few people say things like, " why should I care? I didn’t know him." or, " people die everyday, what’s the big deal." Why should we care, because he’s a famous athlete?"
I won’t tell anybody how they should feel but here is why it’s a big deal. Kobe was more than “some famous athlete”, he was an all time great. He was greatness personified and we lost part of that with his passing. Such greatness is something people gravitate towards. It awes and inspires them and they want to attach themselves to that greatness in ways such as the time they witnessed it or was touched by it in some way.
You don’t need to know a person to feel grief for their loss. When a person reaches the level in his craft that Kobe reached you can appreciate that and then you can understand why it’s such a great loss. Not necessary the loss of the man, which is sad, but the loss of what he represented is the thing that strangers are grieving. A great loss indeed, RIP Kobe, I never rooted for you but you moved me nonetheless.
Kobe was not as great a player as MJ, but he was a better person, and proved that he could overcome great adversity and become great off of the court. This is a tremendous loss for the NBA and the entire world.