TMZ reporting Kobe killed in copter crash

[STEVEHOLT]

I hope he grounds himself, too, for the sake of his wife, Nina, & 3-year-old girl, Lola. A Nina tweet tonight during the Grammys.

I can already hear him saying that you just have to be careful and he'd never fly in such conditions and ya da ya da ya da. even if there is zero chance he'd die flying (which we know isn't true) just the angst he must give his wife (and daughter when she's old enough) should force him to the ground...just for their peace of mind

 

[Wrinkle]

I can already hear him saying that you just have to be careful and he'd never fly in such conditions and ya da ya da ya da. even if there is zero chance he'd die flying (which we know isn't true) just the angst he must give his wife (and daughter when she's old enough) should force him to the ground...just for their peace of mind

Bill Burr is fine, helicopters are fine. Truly horrible accident

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

Bill Burr is fine, helicopters are fine. Truly horrible accident

im not gonna make a sweeping helicopter judgement on this incident. But I’ve always had a significant personal
Fear Of Them. I never have ridden one and they have always scared me. I feel like planes have so many more safety features that can kick in if there is a failure

 

[Cusefan0307]

According to one of my best friends who lives in LA, flying in a helicopter is the transportation of choice for the wealthy who want to avoid LA freeway traffic at all costs.

 

[MSOrange]

According to one of my best friends who lives in LA, flying in a helicopter is the transportation of choice for the wealthy who want to avoid LA freeway traffic at all costs.

I can understand that. I went to LA for a week for work for 3 or 4 years in a row. I wasn't even driving and I was so done with that traffic after even just a few days.

 

[Briancuse]

According to one of my best friends who lives in LA, flying in a helicopter is the transportation of choice for the wealthy who want to avoid LA freeway traffic at all costs.

Kobe was on the Jimmy Kimmel show and said exactly that.

 

[orange79]

The pilot could not have flown unless he was IFR rated at least. VFR rated pilots (the initial rating one can get) means no flying if visibility is less than 5 miles or cloud base ( ceiling) heights of less than 3000 ft. IFR refers to visibility 1-3 miles and or cloud ceilings of less than 1000 ft. There are lower flight categories called low IFR (LIFR) and very low IFR (VLIFR). This is when ceilings and visibility can get dangerous esp VLIFR. You can’t land if it gets too bad, must be able to see runway before landing obviously. Can take off a little easier than land in bad visibility. Fog is a huge concern for aviation. If it was that bad, surprised helicopter took off. Don’t know what type of instrumentation it had on it. But crash cause and contributions are all conjecture at this point. No matter what, just horrific the crash scene which I just saw on TV, and for those who perished! So so sad!

Pilot requested and received SVFR clearance.

Helo Crash Kills Basketball Legend Kobe Bryant, Eight Others | AIN

Helicopter crashes into foggy California hillside, killing basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others.

www.ainonline.com

 

[Trueblue25]

It’s crazy, there’s not a person around my age that I know that isn’t impacted by this. There’s only a few people like this in the sports world. You think of Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, Shaquille ONeal and Kobe Bryant.

 

[Alsacs]

 

[Stevenson]

Ok ok, we get it, fog is bad. Can we focus on the families please?

I blame you.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Pilot requested and received SVFR clearance. View attachment 175899

Helo Crash Kills Basketball Legend Kobe Bryant, Eight Others | AIN

Helicopter crashes into foggy California hillside, killing basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others.

www.ainonline.com

Special VFR is a sub category of Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight. Permission to operate under Special VFR within a Control Zone, in meteorological conditions not meeting Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) minima, is given to a flight by means of an Air Traffic Control clearance.

thats what I found.

 

[NineOneSeven]

So it was foggy and the helicopter was flying too low and couldn’t react quick enough to avoid a mountain?

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Tom K.]

This is why all of the Michael Jordan comparisons start and end with Kobe Bryant.
Never mind the hardware and accolades.
You look at their games and it's a spitting image. He modeled his game after MJ.

 

[Tom K.]

Doin Work too!

Man, I ordered WWE network and am watching Royal Rumble just because I can’t deal with any Kobe stuff on TV right now and needed something mindless to watch. Can’t handle basic news reports, let alone Doin Work or Dear Basketball right now.

I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm before bed. I typically don't watch it right on Sundays but I knew I had to.

This news punched me right in the face. The celeb deaths don't stir much inside me on a personal level but this one did. Couldn't move from the couch all afternoon. I did go play my basketball game (felt that was the right move). We won by a point with 0.6 left on 2 clutch free throws by a teammate.

I was not a fan of the Kobe/Shaq 3-peat Lakers. Not totally sure why, perhaps I was just too young to appreciate the dominance. I was only 12 and had to target my ire somewhere. After Shaq left LA, Kobe somehow willed his way to become my favorite player of all-time. My favorite moment didn't even come in a Laker uniform but rather with Team USA, hitting that 3 pointer and gets the foul against Spain, and just stands there with his finger over his mouth to silence the crowd. I think that game was at like 2:30 AM east coast. I watched every oddly-timed game of those Olympics. Going to bed early and setting alarms for the middle of the night.

I am nervously awaiting the Clippers/Lakers game on Tuesday night.

 

[DNABB5]

If you've ever been in those canyons you know it can go from still to 60mph winds in two seconds. There was a youtube I saw (since been removed) of the actual crash. The helicopter was "flipped" and down in a fireball within three seconds. Just a horrific tragedy.

 

[AZOrange]

If you've ever been in those canyons you know it can go from still to 60mph winds in two seconds. There was a youtube I saw (since been removed) of the actual crash. The helicopter was "flipped" and down in a fireball within three seconds. Just a horrific tragedy.

The YouTube I saw was a fake. Not sure who’d be in the middle of those hills filming this but maybe there’s a vid

 

[721Comstock]

If you've ever been in those canyons you know it can go from still to 60mph winds in two seconds. There was a youtube I saw (since been removed) of the actual crash. The helicopter was "flipped" and down in a fireball within three seconds. Just a horrific tragedy.

Word is that that video was NOT of Kobe's chopper, but another chopper somewhere in another canyon.

But - the thought that something similar may have happened, is bone chilling.
That was an absolutely horrific crash.

 

[Cuseregular]

OMG that video. wow

 

[rrlbees]

Pilot Was Trying to Fly Higher Before Crash That Killed Kobe Bryant (Published 2020)

Bryant, 41, was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter to his youth basketball academy when they and seven other people perished in the crash. The helicopter had been given special approval to fly around Burbank in foggy weather.

www.nytimes.com

 

[rrlbees]

 

[Zelda Zonk]

According to one of my best friends who lives in LA, flying in a helicopter is the transportation of choice for the wealthy who want to avoid LA freeway traffic at all costs.

Has been that way in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a while now. Traffic there is insane, and that city's population dwarfs even NYC.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OttoMets]

From 2014:

"As Vitti escorted me out, he brought up the fact that Bryant often arrives, by helicopter, at the arena late for games now that he’s no longer playing. “I haven’t yet had a chance to give Kobe s--- about this,” he said. “I’ve heard every excuse in the book for why players are late: my grandmother passed away, my car broke down, I got a flat tire, my kid’s sick. How’s this? ‘My helicopter got fogged in.’ Pretty good, isn’t it?” "

The Fourth Quarter

Kobe Bryant confronts a long—and possibly painful—goodbye.

www.newyorker.com

 

[Cuseregular]

I feel so badly for his family. Husband and child lost. Sister and Dad. Son, Son in law, cousin, Granddaughter, niece, friend, business partner, neighbors...
When someone passes the ripple of loss travels through so many.

man o man truer words cannot be said.

In the you couldn't write it and wouldn't believe it if you did department, two of the best basketball players I've ever seen play in my life have died in less than 24hrs of each other. I write this with a heavy heart as my life long best friend who I went to HS and college with has passed after a long illness. As someone wrote elsewhere in this thread say I love you to everyone in your life important to you often and regularly. With Larry he was the last guy you'd ever think would get cancer (not a drinker, smoker, ate well, exercised religiously every day with his wife) so as he said to me recently before passing enjoy every day, even the bad ones.

He was a two time basketball All American at Hamilton College, an academic all american and about the greatest human being I've ever known or will know. Before his latest career in academia he had a long stint in the airforce teaching wildnerness survival techniques to downed air force pilots. Including the guy shot down over bosnia years ago know as basher 1,2,3.

Men's Basketball Set to Honor All-Americans

On Saturday, February 8 the Hamilton College men’s basketball team will honor the program’s 11 All-American selections. The honorees’ jerseys will be raised to the rafters in Margaret Bundy Scott Field House in a ceremony at halftime of Hamilton’s game ag

www.hamilton.edu

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/-16-down-scott-ogrady-explains-how-he-was-shot-down-over-bosnia/

Lately he's been coaching basketball and teaching in NC. In basketball he was a force of nature and was part of teams that regularly competed at div 3 Hamilton against and beat some div. 1 teams back in the day. He still holds many records at the college and is beloved by many there.

These type of events put it all in perspective and I will say that part of the enjoyment of life at this point for me comes the community we have here which has become very important in my life. Some of my very good friends are from here now that I spend more time with now than any other friends, and I thank them as they share the SU passion (you know who you are). But also so it is true for this whole group who I know only by name/handles here as we all share the love of orange. And though we have quarrels and disagreements about this and that (especially on the OT board) at the end of the day we're all orange brothers and sisters.

So a long winded way of saying thanks my orange brothers and sisters for the entertainment, the information and for the friendship. And also to say "sorry' to anyone I may have rubbed the wrong way either on these boards or especially the OT boards because again read what I just wrote. Theres much more important things in life to hold or have any ill will and as these events show it’s all too short.

And finally Godspeed to my best friend and star basketball player Larry Kollath, I love ya bro and you're forever in my heart and soul. And as his dad and sister just noted, "I hope Larry doesn't have to guard Kobe at the gates of Heaven tonight", but if he does "watch out Kobe because you have met your match with Larry"