What More Can We Say? Kobe Bryant Has Died Up Malibu Canyon
Written by 991KBU on January 27, 2020
Once again … the eyes of the world are on the Malibu area …
Nine people killed in a helicopter crash …. at the top of Malibu Canyon … in the City of Calabasas.
And everyone … in L-A at least … will remember where they were when they heard the news that Kobe Bryant was killed.
His Sikorsky 76 chopper … a huge twin turbine engine executive aircraft … hit the mountainside just uphill of the Las Virgenes Water District offices.
Las Virgenes Road is closed this morning … that may be for some time.
The coroner is still at work.
The NTSB investigators will arrive this morning.
Unofficial radar tracking and air traffic control recordings are giving aviation experts the flight track.
It shows that the chopper was flying west along the 118 Freeway … at the north end of the San Fernando Valley … towards Ventura County.
There were low clouds and ground fog hugging the mountains to the west of the San Fernando Valley.
It then swung southwest … towards gap in the mountains used by the 101 Freeway.
And over the 101 at Las Virgenes … the chopper banked left … possibly heading back to the Valley to avoid fog and clouds.
Juan Brown is an aviation expert at the Biancolirio Youtube feed.
And he says even the most-high tech helicopter cannot hover in a cloud … without moving.
NEWSCART 75403 JUAN BROWN ONE
“They can fly low and they can fly slow but you cannot simply stop a helicopter in the clouds and attempt to hover and get yourself out of a situation.
“You need to continue to fly the helicopter like an aircraft … particularly in an IMC or IFR situation.”
IMC equals Instrument Meteorological Conditions … pilot language for loss of visibility in clouds.
Brown says instrument like GPS and radar and autopilot do not help in zero visibility.
NEWSCART 75402 JUAN BROWN TWO
“You need to be able to see reference to the ground in a helicopter in order to hover.
“You cannot simply hover in instrument conditions because as you are flying on instruments you have the three basic vectors if you will.
“You’e got your altitude your airspeed your bank angle and your heading.
“Once you are hovering you no longer have reference to drift.
“If you are drifting left or right or even backwards, that cannot be easily detected in instruments.
“You cannot easily stop in the event of an emergency climb into the clouds hover and get your way out.
“You have to climb out of the situation.
“You have to retain forward air speed.”
Juan Brown … a pilot and aviation expert at the Biancolirio Youtube feed.
One other factor … the helicopter’e engine did not sound right … according to witnesses.
The chopper crashed next to the Church on the Canyon on Las Virgenes Road.
One parishioner there said the engine “wasn’t sounding right” … it was “spluttering.”
Doctor Jonathon Lucas L-A County chief medical examiner told reporters last night that the area will be off limits for some time.
NEWSCART 75401 LUCAS KOBE
“Given the terrain and the condition of the site … we expect that this will take at least a couple of days
to Out priority is completing the recover as quickly as possible … but safely.”
L A County sheriff Alex Villanueva said last night the area is crowded with the public.
NEWSCART 75400 VILLANUEVA KOBE
“As you can imagine it is a logistical nightmare in a sense because the crash site itself is not easily accessible however we are now faced with – I guess -well-wishers and people in mourning who have descended on the area on the residential community and even on the crash site itself.
“And I guess we have to reiterate … it is off limits to everybody except the first responders and investigators.”
Las Virgenes Road is closed to southbound traffic … except residents of that area … at Agoura Road … just south of the 101 Freeway.
Northbound traffic out of Malibu Canyon is being diverted onto Lost Hills Road.
Right on the middle of the crash closure zone … A.E. Wright Middle School.
By coincidence …. the Las Virgenes school district had already scheduled a pupil free staff development day.
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So many fans drove to Calabasas to see the crash site yesterday … that the C H P closed the offramps from the 101 Freeway to Las Virgenes Road.
The sheriff and the city of Calabasas last night urged those who want to mourn Bryant in Calabasas to go to De Anza Park in Calabasas.
That park is at the corner of Las Virgenes-Malibu Canyon Road … at Lost Hills Road.
That all but guarantees a heavy traffic jam there later today.
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