太长不看,几个值得注意的点:
1)最终报告尚未出炉,目前没有官方的事故原因;
2)飞行员很可能因天气问题导致失去方向感,这可能是事故的直接原因;
3)航空公司的安全项目可能不完善;
4)科比重新预约了航班时间(为了多看一场比赛),将起飞时间提前了45分钟;
5)目前飞行员家人、航空公司都拒绝承担事故责任,航空公司甚至称事故是“上帝的旨意(Act of God)”。
LOS ANGELES -- The pilot of the helicopter that crashed in thick fog,
killing Kobe Bryant and seven other passengers, reported the
aircraft was ascending when it actually was heading for the ground, federal investigators said in documents released Wednesday.
Ara Zobayan radioed to air traffic controllers that he was climbing to 4,000 feet to get above clouds on Jan. 26, when, in fact, the chopper was plunging toward a hillside where it crashed northwest of Los Angeles, killing all nine people aboard.
The report by the National Transportation Safety Board said Zobayan may have "misperceived" the angles at which he was descending and banking, which can happen when a pilot becomes disoriented in low visibility.
联邦调查员称,载有科比的直升机飞行员在浓雾中坠毁前曾向塔台汇报飞机正在爬升,而实际上飞机是在向地面坠落。
1月26日,飞行员Ara Zobayan曾对空管员说他正在爬升至4000英尺的高度,然而实际上飞机正在向洛杉矶西北方向的山区俯冲。最终飞机坠毁,机上9人全部遇难。
NTSB报道中提及飞行员可能在飞机下降时“错误地感知”了飞行角度,这在飞行员因视野受限导致迷失方向时有可能发生。
"Calculated apparent angles at this time show that the pilot could have misperceived both pitch and roll angles," one report stated. "During the final descent the pilot, responding to (air traffic control), stated that they were climbing to four thousand."
John Cox, an aviation safety consultant, said the helicopter's erratic flight path -- the aircraft slowed, climbed, then banked to one side while sinking rapidly -- are telltale signs of a pilot becoming disoriented in conditions that make it hard to see terrain or the horizon.
"He is not the first person to experience it," Cox said. "It's a significant cause of accidents."
The 1,700 pages of reports do not offer a conclusion of what caused the crash but compile factual reports. A final report on the cause is due later.
The NTSB said there was no sign of engine failure in the Sikorsky S-76 and the rotor was spinning just before it hit the ground at about 184 mph (296 kph). The impact caused a crater and scattered debris over an area the size of a football field in the Calabasas hills. Flames engulfed the wreckage.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and six of their friends were killed, along with Zobayan.
报告表示:计算后的飞行角度显示飞行员可能对飞机的俯仰角和翻滚角都产生了错觉。在飞机最后俯冲时,飞行员却报告他们正在爬升至4000英尺。
飞行咨询师John Cox表示,飞行员的错误航线——包括飞机降速、爬升、随后斜着向一侧快速坠落——都显示飞行员在无法目视地面或地平线时失去了方向感。“他不是第一个经历这样事情的人。(失去方向感)是发生事故的重大信号。”
长达1700页的报告没有指明失事的直接原因,但罗列了一些事实情况。最终报告尚未出炉。
NTSB表示飞机并没有发生引擎故障,螺旋桨在高速触地前(296km/h)仍在正常运作。飞机坠毁导致地面被砸出一个大坑,碎片在Calabasas山四射至约一个橄榄球场大的区域,烈火将飞机残骸吞没。
科比、他13岁的女儿Gianna、另外6名朋友和飞行员全部丧生。
About 45 minutes before takeoff, Zobayan had texted a group of people overseeing the flight that the weather was looking "OK."
Richard Webb, owner of OC Helicopters, which booked the flight, agreed.
Zobayan took off from John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:06 a.m. with the eight passengers he had flown the day before to the same destination: a girls basketball tournament at the retired Lakers star's sports academy in Thousand Oaks.
When the helicopter hadn't landed within an hour, an executive of the company that operated the aircraft began a frantic search for it on tracking software and had another company chopper dispatched to look for it.
"The weird thing, though, is that the tracker had stopped at 9:45 a.m. which is not normal and we were trying to reach Ara over the radio," noted Whitney Bagge, vice president of Island Express Helicopters. "I kept refreshing the tracker praying that it was just broken."
Four current and one former pilot for Island Express were interviewed by NTSB investigators and while some praised the company, others said the safety culture could have been better, according to the reports.
One pilot said Zobayan, the company's chief pilot, didn't discuss safety policy or the minimum visibility needed to fly in certain weather. Another comment said the company didn't have a real safety management program.
在起飞前45分钟,飞行员在一个飞行监管群中发消息表示天气“还行”。OC Helicopters的老板Richard Webb同意起飞。
飞行员在9:06起飞,8名乘客前往同一个目的地:位于Thousand Oaks属于科比的体育学院,参加一场女子篮球锦标赛。
飞机1小时内没有抵达目的地,航空公司开始了疯狂地寻找,甚至派出了另一架直升机前往搜寻。
Island Express Helicopters 公司副总裁Whitney Bagge说:“奇怪的事情是追踪器在9:45分停止工作了。我一直在疯狂刷新,希望只是追踪器出故障了。”
受NTSB寻访的4名在职飞行员和1名前飞行员中,有人赞美了公司,也有人说安全文化应当得到提高。一名飞行员表示,遇难的飞行员没有讨论过安全守则,也没有讨论过在极端天气下飞行需要的最低能见度。还有人称该公司并没有真正的安全控制项目。
The company, however, said it had no problem canceling flights if weather was poor. It cited six flights it canceled for
LA Clipperstar
Kawhi Leonard and one for celebrity Kylie Jenner that would have used the same helicopter.
Cate Brady, a personal assistant to Bryant, told NTSB investigators that he never complained or pushed back if his flights were canceled.
Island Express reported 150 flight cancellations due to weather last year. There were 13 cancellations due to weather for 2020, all logged in the two days before Bryant's fatal flight.
The afternoon before the flight -- after returning the Bryants and their guests to Orange County -- Zobayan had texted that he had just checked the weather for his next flight and it was "not the best day tomorrow but it is not as bad as today."
The flight departure Saturday morning had been delayed by weather by 15 minutes, Brady said.
Brady said the original flight time for Sunday was 9:45 a.m., but Bryant had it rescheduled to 9 a.m. because he wanted to see another team play before his daughter's game.
然而这家航空公司却声称在天气恶劣时他们会取消航班。他们曾取消过伦纳德的航班6次,也取消过凯莉·珍娜的航班,她本准备使用同一架直升机。
科比的私人助理Cate Brady告知NTSB调查员,科比从未因航班取消提出抱怨或投诉。
Island Express报道称,去年有150次航班因天气取消。2020年在科比失事前则有13次。
失事前一天的下午,飞行员曾将科比和他的客人们送回科比住处,并发短信称明天的天气“不是最好的,但比今天要好。”
Brady还表示,周六所有的航班都因天气延误了15分钟。科比的航班本计划在9:45起飞,但他把时间重新预约到了9点,因为他们想在Gianna比赛前观看另一场比赛。
Bryant's widow, Vanessa, has sued the pilot, Island Express and the owner of the craft for negligence. In the lawsuit, filed in February as a star-studded public memorial was held before 20,000 people at Staples Center, where Bryant played most of his career, Vanessa Bryant said the pilot shouldn't have flown in those conditions and should have aborted the flight.
Zobayan's brother responded in a court filing that Kobe Bryant knew the risks of helicopter flying and his survivors aren't entitled to damages from the pilot's
estate. Island Express Helicopters Inc. has denied responsibility, calling the crash "an act of God" beyond its control.
Autopsies released last month showed Zobayan did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the crash. The coroner's reports said all nine aboard died from the impact, not the fire that followed.
The others killed were Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa; Christina Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter's basketball team; and Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton. Alyssa and Payton
were Gianna's teammates.
科比的遗孀瓦妮莎已经状告飞行员,Island Express以及直升机的拥有者。诉讼在湖人主场斯台普斯中心对科比的缅怀活动时就已提出。瓦妮莎表示飞行员不应该在这种天气条件下起飞,航班应该被取消。
飞行员的兄弟则在法庭上表示科比知晓飞行的风险。航空公司则拒绝承担责任,认为飞机坠毁是“上帝的旨意”,不在公司控制范围内。
上个月披露出的尸检报告表明飞行员血液内没有违规药物或酒精。飞机上的9人都因撞击死亡,而非被后来的大火烧死。
其他遇难者包括xxx(老消息了,省略)
One of the 40 documents posted by the NTSB includes a 215-page safety report that concludes with an article written by the former president of the Helicopter Association International titled "Land the damned helicopter."
The late Matt Zuccaro wrote the commentary in 2013 after becoming frustrated reading NTSB crash reports and noting that most could have been prevented by a pilot deciding to land as fuel ran low or weather deteriorated.
"Why don't pilots exercise one of the most unique and valuable capabilities of vertical flight -- namely, land the damn helicopter!" Zuccaro wrote. "In a high percentage of crashes, this simple act would break the chain of events and prevent the accident."
The article was included without any comment from investigators.
在NTSB的40份文件中,有一份215页的安全报告,其中包括国际直升机协会前副主席写的一篇名为“如何迫降直升机”。Matt Zuccaro2013年曾称,在天气恶劣或燃油耗尽的情况下,飞行员是可以避免大多数坠毁发生的。“直升机飞行员们为什么不练习这个最独特也最重要的内容呢?在相当大比例的坠毁事故中,它都能帮你从连环事件中脱逃,最终避免坠机。”
尽管在报告中包括了这篇文章,调查员并没有对此进行任何注解。