TMZ Sports:
Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas Sunday morning … TMZ Sports has confirmed.
Kobe was traveling with at least 3 other people in his private helicopter when it went down. A fire broke out. Emergency personnel responded, but nobody on board survived. 5 people are confirmed dead. We’re told Vanessa Bryant was not among those on board.
Eyewitnesses also tell us that they heard the helicopter’s engine sputtering before it went down. The cause of the crash is under investigation. more here
Awful. His poor kids.
A tragedy. He was one of the greats and will be missed. Rest in Peace Kobe.
I don’t think I could be in another helicopter without a parachute. Those things creep me out.
He had just honored le bron james.
Too bad james wasn’t with him.
Sad for his family.
I was telling someone else that about 15 years ago I was recommending to a friend a Kauai helicopter tour that my sister had recently taken. He said ‘I have kids, I’m not getting into a helicopter.’
Kobe was a great athlete and a good role model. Especially by today’s standards. Le Brons am idiot
MJA
JANUARY 26, 2020 AT 3:17 PM
“I don’t think I could be in another helicopter without a parachute.”
…that wouldn’t help, helicopters typically don’t fly high enough to effectively use a parachute, especially if you’re not well-trained to use one.
A good role model? Did you miss the rape and sexual assault accusation? At the very least he was an adulterer.
It’s a sad story and I feel bad for everyone involved and their families but let’s not glorify a guy in death who doesn’t deserve it.
About 150,000 other people world wide will die today too. His death means nothing more to me than any of the others.
Another clue that Fame and Fortune mean nothing in the end.
RIP, all who died.
My father was in a helicopter when he was in the army. The engine died. Fortunately it started just in time for them to land safely.
There is also the audio of Jane Dornacker (the nurse in The Right Stuff) — she was in the middle of doing a traffic report in NYC when her helicopter went down.
It is always sad when lives are cut short.
He will always be remembered by some of us for forcing himself on a nineteen year old hotel clerk in Edwards, Colorado in 2004. She had bruises around her neck, which the married Bryant attributed to the rough sex that he preferred at the time. Just when he was about to be tried for rape and false imprisonment, the victim of his unwanted attention settled a civil case for several million dollars and refused to testify against Bryant in the criminal case. He should have finished his basketball career playing for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
I feel bad for his wife and kids. He was an obama loving lib so that knocks him down several notches on my caring list.
He was a fine athlete. I know he was no angel but he didn’t deserve to die in that particularly ugly way.
By weight, a helicopter is about 75% moving parts — flying in close formation.
Can I have his money?
Cat I knew died in a helicopter inevitable. FAA determined that the probable cause was that he was in the copilot seat with active controls in front of him and had his five year old daughter on his lap. The surmise is that the kid threw a fit and kicked the controls. What is known is that witnesses said bird pitched nose down and the main rotor struck the tail rotor and down she came. I guess this was a regular practice of his to have the kid on his lap with active controls right there a few inches away.
I must agree with most of the people here.
I am sad that anyone died in this tragedy. I am sympathetic to his family. I am just as sympathetic to the others that died and their families.
I, personally, am not a supporter of his. Just because he was a great athlete, does not make him a great person. He had problems in his life, and I do hold those problems against him, but not his family.
For all of the families, you have my heartfelt thoughts and prayers.
Kobe Points Out on Twitter How MAGA Slogan is a Bunch of BS Because of Trump is a Hate Monger
https://blacksportsonline.com/2017/09/kobe-points-out-on-twitter-how-maga-slogan-is-a-bunch-of-bs-because-of-trump-is-a-hate-monger/
(21 Oct 2017) Basketball legend Kobe Bryant said on Saturday he would turn down an invitation to the White House if Donald Trump invited him. Speaking at a news conference during a visit to a sports hall in Paris, the former Lakers player said the decision not to go would be “simple”. Bryant said it was a matter of standing up for what you believe in
Well, we can at least have some sympathy for his 13 year old daughter who also died in the crash.
As far as I know she was apolitical and didn’t rape anybody.
…I’m not a basketball fan and my first impulse was to say, “let the Chinese mourn him”, but he wasn’t from the modern era, so I guess he wasn’t part of that.
Although maybe he could have talked some sense into the young men in the game that he kept up with.
…41 is relatively young, but he still had a good run, and beat crazy odds just to rule the game as he did, get into the game in the first place, or even live long enough to have a shot. Many would enter, few make it all the way.
A freind of mine just retired, and he swears we would have been wearing HIS shoes, had he not fallen on a blacktop court back in the day and bent some of his fingers backwards. He had the physique otherwise, so if he could have leaned to dribble with the back of his hand,then maybe, but it just shows how easy it is to get a career-ending injury.
Some don’t get that far.
I recall when I was a young medic, getting called to a local school pretty far into the evening. This was when someone, Clintons I think, decided the solution to all minority ills was midnight basketball, so the schools opened their gyms to accomodate that. It was a report of an “Unknown Down” at first, so you think maybe a slip, guy knocked himself out, stuff like that.
LEO got there first, and notified it was a non-breather, and step it up.
…we got there and everyone was acting all crazy and upset, with the whirl of activity focused on a 20 year old down inside the key. Found out later the guy was fast breaking to the basket, then just went down face-first like he’d been shot, didn’t make a sound, slid across the hardwood floor a ways from the momentum, and never moved again.
The crowd was speculating vociferously about this as apparently rival gangs had been present, with accusations flying to each other and to the LEOS and to us, with concerns about the City letting a Black man die…you know the drill. Having just got there, though, we had to trust our cops to keep the crowd at bay, and try to figure it out.
And there was a lot to figure
Because this young man was dead.
No, we didn’t reach the conclusion just like that, I’m just spoiling the outcome of what we discovered over the next hour or so. No one thoght that at the time, this guy was the picture of health and athleticism, was well-muscled and well-trained, not an ounce of fat anywhere on his well-proportioned body.
I was not far from that age, and he was heathier than ME.
Except for being dead.
…he had no pulse, no breathing, and no evident reactivity to anything. A hasty secondary exam conducted while backboarding him between compressions revealed no bleeding or any reason to suspect GSW despite the venue; indeed, the man’s face wasn’t even that bloody despite the obvious damage from sliding on it.
Odder still, we couldn’t even establish a pulse during compressions which is REAL odd. Absent MAJOR bleeding, that shouldn’t be, and we didn’t see any.
We kept up the bag valve mask on a endotrachial tube that was passed with NO resistance, and bagged and pumped him to the hospital, at one point introducing IV fluids in a bolus on the theory that the bleeding was internal, and maybe volume would help.
Right track, it turned out, but hopeless.
Declared dead at the hospital, after THEY worked him over a good long while, too, because 20 year olds don’t just DIE.
Except REAL ATHLETIC ones DO.
…on autopsy, they found this fellow had an aortic aneurysm blow out. This was actually in his aortic arch, the structure that distributes the maximum pressure blood from the heart to the rest of the body,and it had likely swelled and swelled painlessly over time, until the day it unseamed like a split bicycle inner tube, and disgorged all this man’s blood into his chest cavity all at once.
He never had a chance. Had this happpened at the threshold of an operating room, he still wouldn’t have had a chance.
And here’s the kicker.
It happens BECAUSE of strenuous, high-level, effective exercise. It is not uncommon along with gifts like enlarged hearts, to afflict atheletes in prime condition.
Had he just been another cheezburger eatin’ fool, he may have still been with us today.
…which is just another risk that Kobe Bryant missed. I don’t know a ton about his particular journey, but all of these things make ANYONE’S trip to the pros a miracle all by ITSELF, and this man made it to the TOP of his game besides.
…I had heard, too, that he was quite fond of his helicopter, often boasting of it being his preferred method of transport. If so, he went out doing something he loved, any of US should be so lucky.
And I also heard he went out after congratulating a younger player on surpasing a record of his. That’s a class note to go out on.
RIP to Mr. Bryant and those who died with him. Prayers for the families are in order, to help them through this difficult time.
Whether we loved him is immaterial.
Someone did.
So if you can’t shed a tear for Mr, Bryamt…
Pray for them.
God Bless,
SNS
I got to be the observer/spotter officer in the police department helicopter a few times. It was a two seater Bell and was a lot of fun assisting the pilot officer with locating addresses, locations, suspects and suspect vehicles. I never considered the potential danger. Youth, I guess. Years later, one of the other pilots I knew was killed in a crash. One of the nicest people I’ve ever known and a very experienced pilot. I don’t think I would ever go up in one again.
Condolences to Bryant’s family and friends.
Kobe will always be remembered as a great baseball player. Thoughts and prayers to his family and all the Dodgers.
Another well-known person that died that died in a helicopter crash was Stevie Ray Vaughan. I’m still missing him & his music a lot more than Kobe, although I do express sympathies to the families of those who died in the crash & those that died to rest in peace.
One experience in a helicopter was enough for me.
Helicopters don’t fly. They beat the air into submission.
But when the beater stops…they are a rock falling swiftly to earth.
An officer I knew when I was a teenager was Later killed in a helicopter crash while on duty. I was laying in bed after getting off at 6 AM. My (then) wife was listening to a news station. The story came on about two Sonoma County deputies being killed. That kind of story always gets my attention. When I heard the one officer’s name I felt a twinge in my stomach.
My condolences go to his family, especially if it’s true what’s being reported now his 13 year old daughter also died. His poor wife.
A few years ago a Life Flight helicopter went down killing the pilot, nurse, EMT and patient. Those poor people got a 2 minute slot on local news and two paragraphs in the local newspaper.
So although I feel for his family, knowing that for the next week the media will constantly be talking about it, I just find it a little sad that people who devoted their life to saving lives are valued so much less than sports figures.
“For it is appointed unto [all] men once to die. After this, judgment.”
*tinfoil fedora on*
If you were the Deep State and wanted a fast distraction from the ever-more-disastrous impeachment, what kind of story would be a 100% guaranteed oxygen suck of media coverage for the next week, so the media has an excuse not to give Team Trump’s legal pitbulls the coverage they deserve?
Asking for friends.
*hat still on*
…as for helecopters, I don’t know about this particular one, but I guy I worked on cars with back in the day had been in Vietnam as a helicopter mechanic, and told me about the “Jesus Nut”.
This is the main rotor retaining nut. If this comes off or fails for any reason…you’re going to see Jesus.
Helicopters don’t glide. An intact one with an engine failure can autorotate, but best case it probably means you get a broken back instead of immediately dead.
I’ve been in helicopters, but I’m not a fan.
It’s a rough ride, and they have zero chill if something goes wrong.
plus, they crash in a circle, and fling bits all around to any interested bystanders.
…and that’s if you DON’T walk into the tail rotor.
…the AirCare helicopter I worked with loaded from the rear, and it was usually loaded “hot”, meaning they would be in a hurry to get to the hospital and would not,therefore, turn the rotors OFF. When you’re loading a guy, you may miss little things like whirling tail rotors. This is why the pilot would disembark and stand by the red line near the tail, for the purpose of being our Catcher in the Rye and steering the butts of the foolish children pushing the patient to the load doors away from the tail rotor, which they are not looking at.
This prevents considerable mess.
The pilots at the time were mostly ex-Vietnam too, so they were pretty philosophical about the risk.
I once asked one of them what he’d do if someone turned too fast and pushed against him too hard.
He said, “Die”.
…I like helicopters, respect helicopters, and honor the vital roles they fill.
…but I’d just as soon not ride one…
…one more fun fact about the AirCare pilot I mentioned…
…he told us he liked it when we couldn’t set up.an LZ for him, so he could go to the nearest grocery store and land there.
This was because, he said, he enjoyed watching the downdraft from the main rotor sending the shopping carts every which where, which he had to do in order to land.
Helicopter pilots are brave and bold and creative, real problem solvers.
They are also crazy…
My son worked on Seahawk helicopters in the Navy. He once brought me into the old blimp hangar on North Island in San Diego where he worked. I got to really look over a Seahawk closely, inside and out, and I couldn’t believe how delicately those things are built. No thanks!
Never liked him but didn’t wish him to die. RIP
”I was laying in bed after getting off at 6 AM.”
Did she get off, too? 😉
I’m not a fan of the Twitter sewer, but my husband has an account and he just told me there are a number of people bemoaning the fact that it was Kobe who died and not Trump. Despicable.
I took my teenage son across the Grand Canyon in a helicopter just last summer.
It was a bit daunting, shaky going up on a windy day.
We had fun looking down and talking in the headsets with the pilot, who was very competent.
When we landed, a friend told me that the same company’s chopper crashed about 6 months before.
Sure glad I didn’t know that.
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/sightseeing-helicopter-crashes-grand-canyon-53005892
Supernightshade- Parachutes don’t work? see? That’s why I’m not getting in one again.
Hambone- I was in a Blackhawk. For like 10 minutes. That’s all I needed. lol.
woody- we have those from LV to GrandCanyon. I think one of the deals is you kayak or whatever on the Colorado and then the helicopter brings you back to Las Vegas.
I can’t imagine. lol.
A patent attorney told me that he decided to retire from flying an F4 for the Air Force because too many of his fellow pilots had died.
I had the pleasure of getting a ride on a glass bubble whirlybird with no doors while volunteering for forest fire duty in northern nevada circa 1974.
Pilot flipped us 90 degrees on the right side over a cluster of burning trees. I was seated on the right side in the rear, and felt the heat on my face. It was terrifying because the chopper was bobbing up down and sideways the whole time.
As for Kobe Bryant, I am sorry. He started in the NBA about the time I lost interest in the NBA. I hear he was good. Never saw him play. Sorry about his daughter and the pilot and other passengers.
The safest aircraft ever was the Piper Cub. It would just barely kill you.
@MJA –
Yes, Papillon Helicopters. Fleet of about 50 choppers.
They fly about 600,000 tourists a year.
I remember hearing that they shuttled gamblers from Vegas back and forth.
I’m sure the pilots were instructed never to mention the incident.
Can you imagine the accident insurance on a company like that?
Last helicopter story. Father-in-law took a nasty slip on the ice cracking his coconut severely a few years back. He was helicopter evacuated to a hospital. Walt was a bit disoriented and having served two tours as a Marine grunt in Vietnam when they were about to to land he asked the nurse, “Are you dropping me into a Hot LZ?”
Nurse had no idea what he was talking about.
Remember Antonio Moore also…
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/25/army-identifies-reserve-soldier-killed-syria-vehicle-rollover.html
Praying that Kobe’s family know God’s Love, salvation, peace and healing. Losing both Kobe and his daughter are a devastating lose for them.
He made some detrimental mistakes and was a clueless liberal/leftist, but still unique and talented – effecting many lives, in a positive way.
Yet, based on his politics, you can guess he probably made a deal with the devil and had become a Deep State tool. Eventually, there are terrible, unexpected consequences that can result in such a relationship.
Still, praying his family has a better outcome with God being first in their lives.
Sad for his daughter dying. The family and the families of the other 7 people will need lots of love.
There were 9 people on board.
Can we please get Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Nadler, and another asshole token democrat in a helicopter over The Patomic ASAP?
From some of the statements coming from witnesses, the helicopter sounded like it had engine problems, while flying low in thick fog in a low-mountainous area.
Don’t be surrprised if bryant was flying the thing, and flew it right into a hill.
Out of respect for our black hoops bro, Michelle and I will be giving up Kobe beef for 24 hours sometime during Black History Month.
Hate Helos, they have the glide slope of a brick. Watched a SH2F lose hydraulic power on liftoff with a 2 star onboard. The thing went right in the drink, the enlisted guy in the back got an award for throwing the Adm out before the thing sank. (they don’t float well either)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktr_rNghx4k
the dirtball
JANUARY 26, 2020 AT 8:56 PM
“…the enlisted guy in the back got an award for throwing the Adm out before the thing sank. (they don’t float well either)”
…which doesn’t float well, Admirals or helicopters?
Sorry, not sorry. Oh, and there were also countless unborn babies that never had a chance lose their lives today also. Just sayin…
Bryant didn’t kill himself.
flip
JANUARY 26, 2020 AT 5:52 PM
“Did she get off, too?”
…this deserves Yul Brynners answer (after the kiss, starting with the line “you will be my wife at 0.50)…
https://youtu.be/DXjOOS4zAq4
He got away with rape because he paid off the victim.
He was a primadonna, and his “Black Mamba” was kinda racist.
He somehow developed some sort of moral standard against Trump.
It just goes to prove that you can erase everyone’s memory about criminal behavior based on how many championships you can win.
I never liked Kobe during his career- between the preferential treatment he and his team got throughout or because of his assault scandal.
But despite that- I did actually cry a little when I heard this news, he was an important piece (a relatively positive piece) of pop culture and one hell of a basketball player. He was also quite young- and has a daughter not even a year old yet.
Compile that with the reality that his 13 year old also died and I just feel so horrible, so sad and devastated for his wife and other children.
They’re in my prayers. 🙁
30,000 other people died yesterday.
Not all in privately-owned helicopter crashes.
RIP
izlamo delenda est …