Legendary basketball star, Kobe Bryant, 41, was killed on Sunday morning (26th January) when the helicopter he was traveling in crashed in Calabasas about 65km north-west of Los Angeles.

“There were no survivors… There were nine people on board the aircraft, the pilot plus eight individuals,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.

His daughter Gianna, 13, was also on board, NBA authorities confirmed.

According to Los Angeles Times :

The helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B built in 1991, departed John Wayne Airport at 9:06 a.m. Sunday, according to publicly available flight records. The chopper passed over Boyle Heights, near Dodger Stadium, and circled over Glendale during the flight.

The crash occurred shortly before 10 a.m. near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street in Calabasas. Authorities received a 911 call at 9:47 a.m., and firefighters arrived to find that the crash had ignited a quarter-acre brush fire in steep terrain, said L.A. County Fire Chief Daryl Osby. Responders included 56 fire personnel — firefighters, a helicopter with paramedics, hand crews — and sheriff’s deputies.

Baseball coach John Altobelli was among the others who died in the crash. Altobelli’s wife, Keri Altobelli, and their 13-year-old daughter, Alyssa, who played on the club team with Bryant’s daughter, were also among the victims, according to his family.

Christina Mauser, Bryant’s top assistant coach on the travel basketball team, was also killed in the crash.

Flight trackers showed that Kobe’s helicopter (N72EX) was circling above the LA at least six times under ‘Special VFR’, according to ATC recording, they were then holding for near 15mins outside Brubank class C airspace due to heavy IFR traffic in the area. They were expecting to transit to the Northside of the airport according to BUR Tower communication. They were then cleared to Burbank Class C Surface Area from the southeast to the northwest. VNY Tower then cleared them into Van Nuys Class D north-west of Van Nuys along the 118 freeway westbound. That time N72EX was at 1400 feet. Visibility reported at 2 ½ with an overcast ceiling at 1100 feet.

Soon after, at 1500 feet, N72EX was granted and turning to the southwest for 101 freeway still under VFR condition. Socal Approach, which took over the communication, was not able to contact N72EX, either due to poor radio receiver or flying too low altitude. Soon after, the helicopter crashed in the area of Calabasas. It is reported that the helicopter rapidly climbed from about 1,200 feet towards 2,000 feet, unfortunately not in time to clear the mountainous area and flew into a mountain at 1,700 feet, moments later.

About 10 minutes later, the fog became worse, and the pilot turned south, where they were headed toward a mountainous area. The pilot suddenly and rapidly climbed from about 1,200 feet up to 2,000 feet.

However, they flew into a mountain at 1,700 feet, moments later.