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“There wasn’t a black box, and there isn’t a requirement to have a black box” on this helicopter, Jennifer Homendy, a member of the NTSB, said at a news conference Monday.
But there was an iPad in the helicopter that included the ForeFlight application, which pilots use while in the air to review flight plans, monitor weather briefings and more, she said. Investigators would review the iPad and other evidence recovered from the crash site, which extended about 500 to 600 feet away from the center of the wreckage.
“It was a pretty devastating accident scene,” Homendy said.
During the flight Sunday morning, the fog was so thick that the pilot had to get special visual clearance from air traffic controllers before continuing on the route.
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The Los Angeles Police Department had grounded its helicopters, but the pilot was licensed to fly in inclement weather and continued toward Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.
The helicopter lost contact with controllers at 9:45 a.m., and two minutes later, witnesses called 911 and reported hearing the sound of whirring blades and a fire on the hillside. The aircraft had smashed into a hill at 1,085 feet.
The investigation, which the NTSB is leading, will include a review of weather conditions, but it will encompass much more, Homendy said.
“We look at man, machine and the environment, and weather is just a small portion of that,” she said, adding that investigators would review records and evidence tied to the pilot, his company, the helicopter and its instruments, and more.
A Lakers’ announcer described how the team learned of the crash.
John Ireland, the radio play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers, was aboard a transcontinental flight with the team Sunday when word of Bryant’s death reached the jet.
At first, he recalled Monday, he thought a tweet about Bryant’s death was the result of a social media hacking. Then he saw the TMZ report that broke the news, and soon after, members of the team’s security staff confirmed the fatal helicopter crash.
“Everybody became inconsolable,” Ireland said on his radio show on 710 AM in Los Angeles. “Whole plane was crying, praying that we somehow had it wrong or, because we were in a confined space, that somebody was playing a very elaborate, well-executed practical joke.”
It fell to Frank Vogel, the head coach, to tell the players, Ireland said. The rest of the long flight, he suggested, passed in an emotional daze.
“I don’t remember the rest of the flight after that,” he said. “We still had like three and a half hours left. I just remember learning about it, sitting there, watching everybody crying.”
The Lakers were scheduled to play the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night, but the NBA said Monday that the game would be postponed. The Lakers are next scheduled to host Portland on Friday night.
Nike gear tied to Bryant is in high demand online.
Fans looking to purchase Kobe Bryant merchandise might be out of luck.
A search for Bryant products on Nike’s website Tuesday turned up only a yellow-and-purple Nike gift card, bearing the Los Angeles Lakers logo.
Some news outlets reported that Nike had pulled all Bryant gear in the wake of his death Sunday, but a Nike spokesman confirmed Tuesday that it had all sold out as normal online. Nike would not say whether the sold-out products would be restocked or what would happen to planned releases of apparel tied to the star.
Bryant wore the first of his signature shoes during the 2005-06 season, which included the game where he scored 81 points. Nike also helped popularize his nickname, The Black Mamba, in ads.
Mark Parker, the longtime chief executive of Nike who recently stepped down while remaining on the board, said in a statement Tuesday that Bryant thoughtfully pushed the company into new territory on its projects but also had genuine curiosity about other pursuits.
“He was fascinated with the process of how others became great in all facets of society. While some will remember that as his competitive side, I always saw a sincere passion for learning,” Parker said. “He wanted to know — because life for Kobe was about constant progression and improvement.”
The pilot was called experienced and meticulous.
The pilot on board the helicopter, Ara Zobayan, learned to fly in 1998, after taking a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon. He was certified not only to fly under instrument conditions — navigating with the use of instruments — but also to teach other pilots seeking to obtain their own instrument ratings. And he had no accidents or enforcement actions on his record according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
So pilots who knew Zobayan were perplexed by the crash, describing him as an experienced and meticulous operator. He had flown Bryant many times before.
“Supercautious, supersmart,” an instructor said. “I can’t see him making this kind of mistake.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .