The pilot of a helicopter that crashed on a cloudy slope in Calabasas a year ago, killing Kobe Bryant and eight others on board, should not have flown in cloudy conditions, where he was disoriented, federal regulators said on Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said pilot Ara Zobayan suffered spatial disorientation while sailing through clouds and fog-covered terrain on the January 26, 2020 flight from Orange County to Camarillo.
NTSB President Robert Sumwalt said Zobayan was flying under the rules of visual flight, but the “pilot continued his flight in the clouds”. Zobayan was “legally prohibited” from flying through cloud cover, but he did it anyway, said Sunwalt.
The Sikorsky helicopter was not in a controlled flight pattern when it crashed into the hillside near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at 9:45 am
NTSB member Michael Graham said Zobayan ignored his training, adding that as long as helicopters continue to fly in the clouds using visual flight rules, “a certain percentage will not make it out alive”.
Despite previous NTSB recommendations that helicopters be equipped with collision-proof voice and flight recorders, the Sikorsky that Bryant was flying in did not have this equipment. The Federal Aviation Administration did not require such resources on the helicopter, nor was it necessary to have a safety management system.
Investigator Bill English told the council that Zobayan informed air traffic control that he was “climbing 4,000 feet” to stay above the clouds. But English said the pilot was experiencing spatial disorientation because the helicopter tilted to the left, away from Highway 101, while communicating with the controller who had descended.
Zoboyan misunderstood altitude and acceleration and suffered what is known as a somatogravic illusion, according to Dr. Dujuan Sevillian. He said the helicopter’s acceleration can make the pilot feel like the aircraft is climbing, when in fact it isn’t.
“Our inner ear can give us a false sense of orientation,” said Sevillian, noting that the lack of visual cues while surrounded by clouds makes the problem worse and the pilot suffers what is known as “tilt”.