Qualla: 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash: Introduction

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thenabster126, CC BY-SA 4.0. The helicopter had flown the same route the day before without incident. The thirty-minute flight from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo was a routine Kobe Bryant commute — a workaround for the two-hour drive between his Newport Beach home and the Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park, where he coached his daughter's basketball team. On Sunday morning, January 26, 2020, the fog was different. The hills around Calabasas were inside the clouds, and a 1991 Sikorsky S-76B registration N72EX struck a hillside at an elevation of approximately 1,085 feet. All nine people aboard were killed.

Image: Thenabster126 | CC BY-SA 4.0

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash: Nine People

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ikasanzew, CC BY-SA 4.0. The passengers were not strangers. Kobe Bryant, 41, had retired from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016 after a 20-year career and had turned his attention to coaching. Beside him was his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. John Altobelli — head baseball coach at Orange Coast College — was ...

Image: Ikasanzew | CC BY-SA 4.0

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash: Into the Clouds

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0. Air traffic controllers first contacted Zobayan at 9:40 a.m. and warned him that at his altitude, they would soon lose both communication and radar contact. They advised him to squawk VFR — to transmit the standard visual flight rules transponder code — until he could reach Camar...

Image: Coolcaesar | CC BY-SA 4.0

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash: What Followed

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0. TMZ confirmed Bryant's death at 11:24 a.m., less than two hours after impact. The news hit the country like a physical event. That afternoon, the FAA imposed a five-mile no-fly zone around the crash site at the request of Bryant's wife Vanessa, to protect the victims' privacy and...

Image: Coolcaesar | CC BY-SA 4.0

2020 Calabasas helicopter crash: The Aircraft's History

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0. The helicopter that crashed had its own biography. Built in 1991, the Sikorsky S-76B was owned by Island Express Holding Corporation, based in Fillmore, California. Before 2015, it had been owned by the state of Illinois, which used it to transport governors and other officials. ...

Image: kitmasterbloke | CC BY 2.0