Kobe Bryant’s Pilot Misjudged Terrain And Did Not Slow Down

The pilot was following a visual flight plan and was cleared by the tower to proceed towards Thousand Oaks where Kobe was taking his daughter and others for a basketball game. When they reached the Calabasas area, the fog became blinding.

TMZ reports that the pilot was entirely too low — at 1,250 feet. The pilots that TMZ was able to speak to say it’s clear based on the abrupt change on the flight tracker. The pilot panicked and quickly ascended to 2,000 feet. According to the pilots, he cleared a mountain range by 100 feet and was so low that he almost certainly saw the tops of the mountain.

According to the experienced pilots that TMZ spoke with, say that based on the flight tracker and the accident scene, they believe the pilot felt like he had cleared all of the mountains and was proceeding to head back when he hit another mountain. The pilot clearly was unaware of other mountains ahead because he descended from 2,000 feet to 1,700 feet, likely to go underneath the fog.