Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 03:20PM by Twinker.

It's breaking the internet. I saw the news on TMZ. It's one of those headlines that make you just sort of stare at the screen, trying to let it sink in that you're seeing it correctly.

I'm not a sports fan at all, but I certainly know who he is. It shocked me.

But it crashed TMZ's comments section and I can't even get onto his Wikipedia page right now.

Four little kids, one an infant. How sad.

A minor vignette of daily L.A. life:

About a year ago, I was walking along Ventura Blvd. and passed a bus stop featuring a large poster of Bryant. A mentally ill homeless guy was seriously raging at the Bryant poster – literally screaming at it, dropping F-bombs (F*** YOU KOBE!! F*** YOU!!), and flipping it off with both hands. "Hm, interesting," I thought, and continued on my way.

I bet that guy wouldn't be overly upset by today's news.

What a shock. Poor family. :(

TMZ is reporting that one of his daughters was with him. His poor wife.

The news report says that a neighbor heard a low-flying aircraft overhead....then there was a BOOM! sound....and when the overcast cleared somewhat (this morning was overcast in the western San Fernando Valley), the neighbor could see smoke rising from a nearby mountain.

The western Valley IS mountainous, and Calabasas is (in part) both on the borderline of the mountains, and is also (in part) located within them.

I am very sorry for all of his extended family.

This is devastating.

https://ktla.com/2020/01/26/kobe-bryant-dies-in-calabasas-area-helicopter-crash-that-left-no-survivors-variety/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 04:29PM by Tevai.

An informed visual representation of the helicopter's route from the point where it entered the Los Angeles Basin.

I learned a great deal--including about the actual terrain I grew up in.

Really well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHpbGhy3Ko

Okay, that explains why the pilot was circling repeatedly earlier in the flight. He was waiting for clearance to cross a certain airspace. It pretty much explains everything except why the pilot dropped altitude suddenly while turning back from the mountains. Engine trouble, maybe?

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Okay, that explains why the pilot was circling
> repeatedly earlier in the flight. He was waiting
> for clearance to cross a certain airspace. It
> pretty much explains everything except why the
> pilot dropped altitude suddenly while turning back
> from the mountains. Engine trouble, maybe?

Until the official report is released (which, according to anecdotal reports, may take a considerable amount of time: months for certain, perhaps a year or so), no one will know for sure.

There has been speculation on two fronts:

1) Visual disorientation within the fog (from what I have heard, the helicopter was flying within the fog layer--and it is very easy for pilots to get disoriented in fog), or....

2) disorientation due to the fact that the available flying "space" between the actual mountain, and the fog layer, had "shrunk" considerably (because of the mountainous/hilly terrain where the crash occurred), and the pilot may not have realized sufficiently just how much that flying space had shrunk.

EDITED TO ADD: This video just went up, and is geared for the aircraft (helicopter and fixed wing both) flying aficionados--and it explains a great deal about the probabilities of this accident in an easily comprehensible way.

Very Highly Recommended:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ymcG-YKOCM

P.S. When I was growing up, and from fifth grade on, my aunt had her uranium prospecting business, and I did a lot of flying in small aircraft--to the point where I could get out of [elementary] school, we drove to the airport (Whitman in the north Valley, mostly), flew to Las Vegas, had a long conversational dinner with whoever, and flew back home....and I was on time at school the next morning. There was one evening when the adults were talking, and a bunch of kids who were in circumstances similar to mine and I started running around the part of the airport where planes were tethered, and at some point we found this plane with the door unlocked (it was now night), so we all piled in and were making believe that we were flying the plane. When we got out, I looked at the door and there was a police star in gold on the door, and it said: CLARK COUNTY SHERIFF. I yelled out to everyone and we started running out of that part of the airport, trying to get away before we were caught, and we were tripping over all the guy wires (which tethered the planes to the ground--remember, it was deep night by this point)....and despite the falls and the bruises, it was a GREAT adventure!!

So with that background, I found the second video above to be really interesting on several levels.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2020 06:14PM by Tevai.

Awful news.

Who gets dibs on doing his temple work?

In a year one of the best basketball players ever will be a Mormon. Kind of humbling...

As tragic as it is, there’s an object lesson for Mormons:

“You see, children, the people on the helicopter were going to a basketball game on the Sabbath. This displeased God, so their helicopter crashed into a mountain and they all died. Be sure to keep the Sabbath day holy by only doing boring stuff, lest you also die a fiery and violent death.”

Now, it's reported that he and his daughter were among 9 people that were killed on the helicopter.

¿ did they died OPie ? ~



in b 4 ~ never heard of them ~

Thanks to the beloved Correlation program I hereby have the following eulogy to make that is the most empathetic response that I could possibly come up with thanks to how I've been molded to think and act.

1. What are all the names and birthdates for the people who died in the helicopter crash?

2. Who is organizing the funerals so we can make sure that the talks are written to be presented that focus on the beloved teachings of the wondrous Correlation program to ensure that all present get fully assimilated and start working hard to bolster up the Church's wondrous programs, like that poor auxiliary called Ensign Peak Advisors that only has $127 billion due to the failure of us all to gather all the widows' mites.

I'd try to be more empathetic but this is the best I can do. Just doing things the Correlation way.