Speaker 1: I'm Steve Gregory in Los Angeles and this is the
Speaker 1: death and life of Kobe Bryant. Sunday, January, Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: his thirteen year old daughter Gianna, her two friends, and
Speaker 1: four others board a private helicopter in Orange County. The
Speaker 1: group is headed to a youth basketball tournament at Mamba
Speaker 1: Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, a little over seventy miles away,
Speaker 1: just northwest of Los Angeles. Gianna and her two team
Speaker 1: meets were about to play in the tournament. Bryant was
Speaker 1: the head coach of Gianna's basketball team, the Mamba's. Bryant's wife, Vanessa,
Speaker 1: was already at the sports Academy. It was widely known
Speaker 1: that Bryant used a private helicopter to travel to Actus
Speaker 1: two games and other events. He also once said using
Speaker 1: a helicopter kept him fresh and ready for games. The
Speaker 1: Mamba Sports Academy was a frequent destination for Bryant and
Speaker 1: his daughter. The pilot, are A Zabayan, has flown that
Speaker 1: route many times before, and logs show the aircraft had
Speaker 1: flown the route about two dozen times over a two
Speaker 1: year period. Zabayan had flown other celebrities and v i
Speaker 1: P s through the helicopter's owner. Island Express. Conditions for
Speaker 1: the normally routine flight changed when foggy conditions set in.
Speaker 1: Zabayan was flying a Sikorski S seventy six B, a
Speaker 1: common choice for corporate in v I P travel. Zabayan's
Speaker 1: aircraft was not equipped with tas it stands for Terrain
Speaker 1: Avoidance and Warning System, but it was not a required
Speaker 1: piece of equipment, so Zabayan had to rely on his
Speaker 1: own line of sight to pilot the helicopter. Jim Lan's
Speaker 1: a former helicopter news reporter and pilot and was part
Speaker 1: of the Cafie news coverage the morning of the crash.
Speaker 1: Tim helps us to cipher the radio traffic number two
Speaker 1: and going straight hold Class Charlie Airspace and an aircraft
Speaker 1: going around. So what has happened is that he is
Speaker 1: transitioning up to five freeway when he reached the about
Speaker 1: the l A Zoo and that's the border for the
Speaker 1: Burbank airspace. And because uh he the weather was so bad,
Speaker 1: he said it was the towers reporting i f R,
Speaker 1: which is instrument flight rules, which means visibility and ceiling
Speaker 1: is pretty low. So the pilot at that point just
Speaker 1: requested a special v FAR transition through his airspace. And
Speaker 1: that's a normal procedure that pilots can do when the
Speaker 1: airport is below what they called basic could be a far.
Speaker 1: Yeah you're are you following? Okay? What that is? He
Speaker 1: said to him? He says, I see you on a
Speaker 1: twelve hunter code in the transponder. If you have one
Speaker 1: to zero zero in your transponder, that means I am
Speaker 1: a v FAR aircraft and I'm not talking to anybody.
Speaker 1: And at that point, so what the air air traffic
Speaker 1: controller in San Diego a scene as a what they
Speaker 1: call it the a f our target. He could see
Speaker 1: what the altitude speed is of that aircraft. Two echo
Speaker 1: actory some time passes, then to echo Actually you're still
Speaker 1: too little level for fly following at this time radio
Speaker 1: silence two echo actors ocount. A lot has been said
Speaker 1: about the actions of the pilot are Zobaian Should he
Speaker 1: have waited for the fog to clear? Shouldn't the helicopter
Speaker 1: have been equipped with the tause avoidance system. We may
Speaker 1: never know the answers to these questions, but we wanted
Speaker 1: to get a breakdown of the radio transmissions that day
Speaker 1: between the Bayan and air traffic controllers. Tim Lends a
Speaker 1: former news helicopter reporter and pilot. He used to work
Speaker 1: for one of the big TV news stations here in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. He's best known for his live coverage of
Speaker 1: car chases and other breaking news. So I asked him
Speaker 1: to listen to the entire transmission that was released and
Speaker 1: give us his play by plane. This is the beginning
Speaker 1: of the air traffic control chatter that morning to actually
Speaker 1: Burbran couberminco to the three D one Enterberbank class Charlie
Speaker 1: trip terias and farm stay attentions five tiers Town, the
Speaker 1: one on one West Touth School November two and going
Speaker 1: straight hold out type Burbank class Charlie Airspace. I have
Speaker 1: an aircraft going around okay, so what has happened is
Speaker 1: that he has transitioning got the five freeway when he
Speaker 1: reached the about the L A zoo and that's the
Speaker 1: border for the Burbank airspace and the ATEN says Charlie
Speaker 1: air space. The air spaces are are designated by its letters,
Speaker 1: so you know, be being around large around l A X.
Speaker 1: Charlie is for the smaller UH commuter airports like Burbank,
Speaker 1: So Class Charlie air space is the area that the
Speaker 1: tower controls. So and because uh he the weather was
Speaker 1: so bad, he said it was the towers reporting i
Speaker 1: f R, which is instruments like rules, which means visibility
Speaker 1: and ceiling is pretty low. So the pilot at that
Speaker 1: point just requested a special v FAR transition through his airspace.
Speaker 1: And that's a normal procedure that pilots can do when
Speaker 1: the airport is below what they called basic could be
Speaker 1: a far. So that because when you heard the controller
Speaker 1: come back and say, remain clear of Class Trailie airspace.
Speaker 1: I'll get back to you. I have a goal around,
Speaker 1: which means an aircraft just tried to land but had
Speaker 1: to go around because he didn't have the runway in
Speaker 1: sight or he who was outside of his speed and
Speaker 1: altitude restriction or parameters to have to go around, and
Speaker 1: then apparently had another aircraft coming in nine miles out
Speaker 1: from there. So the rule is on special v FR
Speaker 1: you're only allowed to have one aircraft in the airspace
Speaker 1: at any one time operating. So he had to keep
Speaker 1: the helicopter out of the airspace until that airplane or
Speaker 1: the two airplanes that were in the airspace or coming
Speaker 1: into the airspace to get those on the ground first,
Speaker 1: and then they were going to let him through. But
Speaker 1: that that happens if you have a busy airport and
Speaker 1: you're coming through and you try to slide through on
Speaker 1: a special v f R, they're gonna hold you to
Speaker 1: make sure everybody else is on the ground first and
Speaker 1: then let you through. Vember two ecolect ray and for
Speaker 1: your planning purposes, you can expect to transition to the
Speaker 1: north side of the airport. I just spoke with Van
Speaker 1: Eyes on the line and they've got multiple I part
Speaker 1: depart just coming off of from A one six, So
Speaker 1: you can expect to follow the find northing cross that way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So because what was happening, they had a lot of
Speaker 1: instrument flight traffic coming into both the airports, and to
Speaker 1: try to help him get through, they were just telling
Speaker 1: him though, for planning purposes, because he was actually asking
Speaker 1: to go west or north one oh one, which would
Speaker 1: pass to the south of Burbank into the south of
Speaker 1: Van Eyes. They were warning him, what, you're gonna need
Speaker 1: to go up the five freeway to the one eight
Speaker 1: team and go around the north side of the airports
Speaker 1: because Dan Eyes had I fr traffic or instrument traffic
Speaker 1: taking off to the south off their runways. They wanted
Speaker 1: to keep the conflicts down at that point, so they
Speaker 1: were just getting the heads up. So they're working with
Speaker 1: him giving them information how to get through there. So
Speaker 1: that's up. All that is all normal up to this point.
Speaker 1: Straight for your transitioning Camerio. Did you just want to
Speaker 1: follow the one team that I would look for up
Speaker 1: then I to catch the one O one two question Rogers.
Speaker 1: He offered him to take the one eighteen through the
Speaker 1: Santa Susana pass UH because there's a couple of passes
Speaker 1: to get out of valley to the west because you
Speaker 1: have some high mountains there between the one on one
Speaker 1: and the one eight team, So there's one pass that
Speaker 1: goes to one E Santa Susana and then the one
Speaker 1: on one is the one that he wanted because where
Speaker 1: he was trying to go is right off the one
Speaker 1: on one. He he had filed from my understand to
Speaker 1: Camario Airport, or he was saying he was going to
Speaker 1: Camarrio Port, but actually he was going to a parking
Speaker 1: lot there in UH. I believe either Agora or Calabasas
Speaker 1: near the Mamba Academy, so he wasn't gonna try to
Speaker 1: go to the airport. He was gonna land off site
Speaker 1: as we call it. So at that point he said
Speaker 1: he had liked to, you know, dropped down of the
Speaker 1: south and pick up that one on one and go
Speaker 1: through uh Calabasas and Abura Hills there matu Coo X
Speaker 1: ray continue following the five northwestbound to join the one
Speaker 1: eight team and then Van Eidel work you through freighter
Speaker 1: services terminated from Aintance Squawk contact Van I Helicopters one zero.
Speaker 1: He just gave him his route of flight that he
Speaker 1: wanted him to take and controllers trying to make sure
Speaker 1: that he keeps him out of a way of any
Speaker 1: of his aircraft. And then he also had already more
Speaker 1: likely been talking on the two way with Van Eiserport
Speaker 1: telling him this guy is coming and here's what I
Speaker 1: told him to do. And so now Danna I was
Speaker 1: going to be looking for him coming down westbound one
Speaker 1: team from the five instead of coming up to one
Speaker 1: oh one. So it helps out. The towers work with
Speaker 1: each other trying to alert each other at the air traffic.
Speaker 1: So they gave him a route to follow the five
Speaker 1: Freeway north to the west one team and then check
Speaker 1: in with Van Eys and they'll carib you when they
Speaker 1: take you on. So you'll hear it later on in
Speaker 1: the recording when he checks in the van Eyes and
Speaker 1: I kind of too echo extra with you for the
Speaker 1: especially be a part transition. We are kind of a
Speaker 1: fourteen hundreds helicopter seven to echo actually van I tower
Speaker 1: wind calm visibility two and one half feeling one thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred fordecast and I bought some three zero one
Speaker 1: six cleared into van I've class Delta northeast of Vanis
Speaker 1: along the one eighteen freeway west down. Advice when you're
Speaker 1: in DFR conditions or when you're clear of the Vanis
Speaker 1: Class Delta transition at or blow two thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: committee to echo X ray prise is to be a
Speaker 1: fart condition. Uh that I would stay of the one
Speaker 1: eighteen because he has fourteen hundreds and we have LEGO
Speaker 1: two or three wives help and can actually thank you.
Speaker 1: And whence you clear Vani delta, did you want to
Speaker 1: talk to so call from question. What she just told
Speaker 1: him was she had radar identified him, said that he
Speaker 1: was radar contact. Then he gave her or gave him
Speaker 1: the weather at Danai's airports, which was two and a
Speaker 1: half miles visibility eleven feet overcast and the altender for
Speaker 1: the airports. Right now, he's up over the one eighteen,
Speaker 1: and she then says continue west one until in d
Speaker 1: FR conditions, which means visual flight rule conditions. And once
Speaker 1: he he said he didn't, he replied back at the end,
Speaker 1: I am in d FR and continuing on. So what
Speaker 1: he was doing was going up, going west on THEE
Speaker 1: and when clear, he'll report or he should for report
Speaker 1: clear the Van I, the Van I class Delta air space,
Speaker 1: so you have Charlie air space and for Burbank and
Speaker 1: then Delta and Van I. He's going to work his
Speaker 1: way along one eighteen and then skirt around the DNA
Speaker 1: i's air space towards the one oh one, which is
Speaker 1: all perfectly good. Quick Actually he starts going and so
Speaker 1: to be a south quest close to one one, he
Speaker 1: was asking if he was okay for him to turn
Speaker 1: south towards the one on one because more likely he
Speaker 1: still was in her airspace, and so he was just
Speaker 1: requesting to make that left hand turn from the one
Speaker 1: and follow over to the southwest to get down to
Speaker 1: the one on one. Approved, and are you transitioning in
Speaker 1: b a far condition? And what dollars the five months
Speaker 1: tootric thank you contacts? So now one three or four
Speaker 1: point two for flight following, So right there she okay,
Speaker 1: controller from the Nays Airport then approved his request to
Speaker 1: turn southbound towards the one on one for you as
Speaker 1: she asked if he was in visual flight rules. He
Speaker 1: replied back, yes, I'm in visual flight rules at fift
Speaker 1: hundred and she said approved as requested, and then asked
Speaker 1: for him to contact the so Cal Traken, which is
Speaker 1: a so call uh radar system that is covers the
Speaker 1: area here, to contact them so that they could get
Speaker 1: him into ray our contact and follow him to his destination.
Speaker 1: And I dent is a term that and that's and
Speaker 1: let's explain what SOCALF trackon or the SoCal SoCal radar control.
Speaker 1: They cover all of southern California and they are based
Speaker 1: out in San Diego, and each controller has a little
Speaker 1: piece of the pie up a different sectors throughout southern California.
Speaker 1: So you're talking to a greadar controller down San Diego
Speaker 1: at this point and he just checked in with him, uh,
Speaker 1: you know echo X ray request, you know, and then
Speaker 1: when he came to heard the controller cup on echo
Speaker 1: X ray ident. That means press a button on your transponder,
Speaker 1: which is a device in the in the aircraft that
Speaker 1: will send a signal to the radar and then make
Speaker 1: you on the radar scope kind of light up. They
Speaker 1: call it a flash to where he can see that
Speaker 1: that dot is the guy he's talking to. So you're
Speaker 1: on a transponder on an aircraft, basically gives you a
Speaker 1: four digit code that they can assign to you and
Speaker 1: then I can you know, know that that not that
Speaker 1: they're looking at as you and then ah, what they
Speaker 1: call an information tag will beyond that and the information
Speaker 1: tag will move across their screen so they know who
Speaker 1: they're talking to. So he's just trying to verify radar
Speaker 1: contact with him at this point coming up. The flight
Speaker 1: continues and seems pretty routine until two echo actors ocount
Speaker 1: radio silence. The death and life of Kobe Bryant continues
Speaker 1: after this. Former TV News chopper reporter and pilot Tim
Speaker 1: Lynn has been analyzing the radio chatter between pilot our
Speaker 1: z a buy in and the air traffic controllers from
Speaker 1: San Diego Van Nye and Burbank. Actually, yeah, you're one,
Speaker 1: are you request folling? Okay? What that is? He said
Speaker 1: to him? He says, I see you on a twelve
Speaker 1: hunter code in a transponder. If you have one to
Speaker 1: zero zero in your transponder, that means I am a
Speaker 1: v FAR aircraft and I'm not talking to anybody. And
Speaker 1: at that point, so what the air airtraffic control or
Speaker 1: in San Diego scene is a what they call a
Speaker 1: B FAR target. He can see, uh, what the altitude
Speaker 1: speed is of that aircraft. And now you know, I
Speaker 1: can't be for sure since she talked to Van Eyes.
Speaker 1: Van Eyes more likely already put it what they call
Speaker 1: a tag on him, so they kind of had an idea.
Speaker 1: With the N number or the registration number. The aircraft
Speaker 1: is probably in there as well, since he had already
Speaker 1: talked to an air traffic controller at Van Eys tower,
Speaker 1: So that that whole thing right there is going, Hey,
Speaker 1: you're not on a code, You're you're just squawking B far,
Speaker 1: which means twelve. What is your intention? You know? Do
Speaker 1: you want me to do? You want flight following, which
Speaker 1: means I can follow you on the radar and give
Speaker 1: you advisories of eric haft around you. That's what flight
Speaker 1: following us. Also, it keeps you in contact with each
Speaker 1: radar sector as you move through your route of flight
Speaker 1: in case something goes wrong or then mostly it's used
Speaker 1: for traffic avoidance, do incollectory? What are you the intention?
Speaker 1: Where are you going? What are you doing? You know?
Speaker 1: So he had so now he can formulate a plan
Speaker 1: with with this this aircraft and what he wants to
Speaker 1: do with him in his air space to eco Actorly,
Speaker 1: you're still too low level for flight following at this time.
Speaker 1: Two in collector and dontcount. You know, the radar coverage
Speaker 1: is only as good as where the radar towers are.
Speaker 1: And you have a lot of hills that are you
Speaker 1: have the Santa Monica Mountains you have And I'm not
Speaker 1: sure exactly which radar site they're working off it because
Speaker 1: there are several races radar sites through southern California and
Speaker 1: to the base and that they used. And whatever one
Speaker 1: he was on, he couldn't see the target he was
Speaker 1: getting intermitted because he had the the tag. At one
Speaker 1: point where he says, I see his squawking, so he
Speaker 1: had him for a little bit. Then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he got behind the mountain there, got too low
Speaker 1: for the radar suite, so he dropped off. So right
Speaker 1: there he was, had him on radar and had him
Speaker 1: on the radio, so he can talk to him on
Speaker 1: the radio, no problem. But his target kep dropping off
Speaker 1: radar and then you heard him say, asked him that
Speaker 1: respond and he didn't respond. So at that point he
Speaker 1: was either a low radar coverage and more likely not
Speaker 1: listening to the radio or not hearing the radio. Since
Speaker 1: that's the last part of the chatter, is there a
Speaker 1: presumption that that could have been at the point of impact?
Speaker 1: Uh no, Uh, you gets presumption maybe, But from what
Speaker 1: information I'm hearing is that he apparently had asked for
Speaker 1: a VFR climb at one point. I've never heard a
Speaker 1: rate our radio transmission of that, but that he had
Speaker 1: asked for a climb. Yeah, but like I said, I
Speaker 1: haven't heard it. But that's usually what you hear at
Speaker 1: the end of the end of the situation like this
Speaker 1: is they'll have you on radar, then you'll drop off radar,
Speaker 1: and then they try to reach you on the rate
Speaker 1: on the radio, and if you don't answer on the radio,
Speaker 1: it's usually what happens at the end. So h as
Speaker 1: far as in the track, he had already made that
Speaker 1: turn up the one on one or not at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure, but he could have still been
Speaker 1: south the valley circle their ball and on the one
Speaker 1: on one at this point, but there apparently was one
Speaker 1: other radar radio transmission asking for a climb. Now, Tim
Speaker 1: you've flown that route before, you flown the area before,
Speaker 1: have you had any problems with the radio transmissions there? Well,
Speaker 1: normally I don't speak with us, the SoCal tray Coon people,
Speaker 1: because I'm norm sho low and I'm out of their
Speaker 1: airspace and I really don't need their help going through there. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, anytime do that as when you're crossing long
Speaker 1: along desolate areas, you want somebody you just to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on you heading out through Gallop Valley, I'll
Speaker 1: do that, or if I'm head out through pomp Strings,
Speaker 1: But and no local flights like that, you're not required.
Speaker 1: Once I clear Vana air space, I'm on my own.
Speaker 1: I don't need to talk to anybody and Conna Tim
Speaker 1: Lynn retraces the route that r Zabayan took that morning.
Speaker 1: As the death and life of Klobe Bryant continues, former
Speaker 1: TV News chopper reporter and pilot Tim Lynn is giving
Speaker 1: us an insider's perspective on the unique language and conversations
Speaker 1: between pilot our Zabaian and their traffic controllers. Tim talks
Speaker 1: about retracing the path that Zibayan took that morning by
Speaker 1: flying the route himself. Yeah, I've flowed do that one
Speaker 1: on one pass multiple times, and even after this crash,
Speaker 1: I went back through there and I and I heard
Speaker 1: his last reported out to four ft fifteen hundred feet,
Speaker 1: and I even tried to fly through their fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: feet just to see what it would be like. And
Speaker 1: it was a way uncomfortable for me to go through
Speaker 1: there at that altitude. Uh, you know, even even in
Speaker 1: the daylight with you know, perfect visibility. You know, I
Speaker 1: had hills on either side of me going up the
Speaker 1: going up to one on one, and that was a
Speaker 1: lot lower than I really would want to be, uh
Speaker 1: to you know, to navigate through there. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd just been curious, curious helicopter pilot and listening to
Speaker 1: the transmissions into different analysis that came out since the crash,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to see what it would look like.
Speaker 1: They tried to grow up there, and you know, it
Speaker 1: was lower than I'd want to be going through that pass.
Speaker 1: And then add to that fog. Oh yeah, there's no way.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have I have minimums uh. And the
Speaker 1: first flying when I was doing the news, you know,
Speaker 1: going through the New Hall Pass. If if I can
Speaker 1: get tot, I wouldn't go because I knew the fires
Speaker 1: for twenty seat and if the visibility was lowered them
Speaker 1: what I know, I could keep contact with the ground,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't do it. But because you never know what's
Speaker 1: on the other side. Because if you get in the past,
Speaker 1: so you have low visibility, you run into a cloud.
Speaker 1: You you can't turn left or right because there's hills
Speaker 1: on the other side of you. And the only thing
Speaker 1: you can do is just you know, full full power,
Speaker 1: full back on the stick and start climbing straight out
Speaker 1: and climb up through the clouds and pop out on
Speaker 1: top and and uh beg for forgiveness at that point,
Speaker 1: ask for help to get back down. But you know,
Speaker 1: you try to keep yourself out of a situation like that.
Speaker 1: It's called inadvertent i AMC or instrument meroological conditions is
Speaker 1: what they talk about, and there's a lot of training
Speaker 1: that goes on to warn pilots about that, to train
Speaker 1: pilots not to get into that situation. As a flight
Speaker 1: instructure myself for both air plane and helicopter, our recurrent
Speaker 1: training that we're required to do every two years, they
Speaker 1: focus on that quite a bit, and they focus on
Speaker 1: other things that have they've had problems with over the
Speaker 1: last two years. But it always is what they call
Speaker 1: interverton i AMC or where airplane drivers, you know, take
Speaker 1: off with a hunter Hamburger on a Saturday afternoon and
Speaker 1: when they get to their destination, they fly into a
Speaker 1: cloud just trying to get there. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that really causes a lot of accidents in
Speaker 1: the general agation world, is that pushing it into bad weather.
Speaker 1: But this pilot, very season that had a lot of
Speaker 1: flight hours, a lot of experience in that aircraft, and
Speaker 1: he had been that roof many times before, so he
Speaker 1: was figuring he could get on through it. And you know,
Speaker 1: your luck as only as long as your luck goes,
Speaker 1: and some days you run out of left coming up
Speaker 1: in episode two. Helicopter crashed into a mountain. We heard it,
Speaker 1: and now I'm looking at the flame. Some hikers in
Speaker 1: the Lost Hills Mountains area of Calabasas had no idea
Speaker 1: what they just witnessed. The Life of Kobe Bryant is
Speaker 1: a production of kf I News at I Heart Media,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles for the I Heart Podcast network. H