Kobe Bryant’s pilot was sober at time of fatal helicopter crash, autopsy reveals

All nine victims were killed by ‘blunt trauma’, coroners find

All people on board the helicopter were killed in the 26 January crash in California (AP)

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Friday released autopsies for the victims of the helicopter crash in California that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and all seven other people on board.

The report on the pilot, Ara Zobayan, said he had tested negative for alcohol and drugs. Investigators with the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) are still reviewing the 26 January crash, and have largely focused on the weather conditions near Calabasas, California.

An initial report from the safety board found that there was no evidence of engine failure.

Many of the autopsy reports’ 180 pages are devoted to detailed descriptions of the victims’ injuries. The cause of death for all nine victims is listed as blunt trauma.

The autopsy report for Bryant runs to 17 pages and describes injuries to nearly his entire body.

“These injuries are rapidly if not instantly fatal,” a medical examiner wrote.

The autopsy report for Gianna, who wore No 2 on her basketball jerseys, said a sleeveless shirt had been found at the scene that read “Bryant 2” on the back and “Mamba 2” on the front.

The fatal flight was heading to a basketball tournament at Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy, in Thousand Oaks, when the helicopter slammed into a hill north of Los Angeles, 39 minutes after it took off from an airport in Santa Ana.

The victims included two of Gianna’s teammates, their relatives and a coach.

Bryant, an 18-time All-Star for the Los Angeles Lakers, was posthumously elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He won five NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals.

The helicopter carrying Bryant was travelling at 184mph and struggling to get above low-hanging clouds before it crashed, the initial NTSB report said. Zobayan, the pilot, had requested special permission to fly through low-visibility zones around airports in Burbank and Van Nuys.

The pilot, who had logged more than 1,200 hours in the S-76B helicopter, was certified to fly with the use of his instruments in conditions of low visibility. But the certification that the Federal Aviation Administration issued to the helicopter’s owner, Island Express Helicopters, only allowed its pilots to fly visually, meaning that in the daytime, they had to be able to see the ground and at least half a mile in front of them.

The New York Times