The NTSB is now on the ground in Calabasas, Calif. to begin what will be a monumental task of examining the wreckage of the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter that crashed on Sunday, killing nine people including NBA star Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
It may take months to definitively determine what caused the crash. Without speculating on a cause, we can dissect the audio communications between the helicopter and tower controllers in the area prior to the crash to at least determine what was taking place.
According to the communications, the pilot for Bryant’s chopper requested “Special VFR” clearance, but what does that mean?
This type of clearance is used when a pilot wishes to fly under visual control through certain airspaces — visual, meaning you navigate with your own eyes and what you can see — and the conditions are less than what is required for typical visual or VFR flight.
A special VFR can be requested when the weather conditions are less than ideal and the pilot needs to travel through controlled air space. It is not all that uncommon, and “special” does not signify special treatment — it simply signifies that it is a requested clearance.
In this case the tower granted the request with the condition that the chopper would follow the freeways while staying “at or below 2,500 feet,” likely to avoid other traffic.
The pilot communicated that he wished to follow the 5 Freeway, connect to the 118, loop around Van Nuys airport and then follow the 101 freeway. When asked by controllers, the pilot said his desired destination was Camarillo airport, which is located in the Thousand Oaks area.
Before the pilot could continue toward Camarillo, controllers held the chopper over Los Angeles so that other aircraft could depart and land at nearby airports. The communications suggest that the helicopter was held for about 15 minutes, which explains the loops we see in the flight track.
Before being released from the hold, the helicopter transporting Bryant and his passengers was given a weather update by controllers: “Fair weather Burbank. Visibility is two-and-a-half miles with haze. Ceiling 1,100 overcast.”
The pilot agreed to follow the highways as requested and said that he would stay at or below 2,500 feet.
The helicopter was passed off to additional controllers and frequencies in the next few minutes and reported being at 1,400 feet.
At one point, the pilot requested to make a turn to the southwest around Van Nuys and pick up another highway to follow.
He appears to have requested “flight following,” meaning that controllers would help guide him around other air traffic and be another set of eyes, so to speak, along the flight. However, the controller responds that the helicopter is too low for following. That does not mean that the aircraft was flying too low in general — aircraft simply need to be at a high enough altitude for the equipment on the ground to read the transponder’s signal.
I could not locate any further communications after that point.
Los Angeles Police have reported that they grounded their helicopters on Sunday morning because the weather conditions prevented safe visual flight.
The helicopter carrying Bryant and the eight others crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, leaving a debris field and sparking a brush fire.
File Photo | Courtesy: FlightAware
On Sunday night, investigators said that the crash scene was difficult to access.
The Los Angeles County Chief Medical examiner said that it may take a couple of days to recover the bodies of the deceased, given the terrain and location of the site.