This timeline shows everything we know — and what we don't — about the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and 8 other people

Christina Mauser, the school's girls basketball coach, was also on the helicopter.

The plan was to land at Camarillo Airport, about a 20-minute drive from the sports academy. The helicopter had made almost exactly the same trip the day before, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Source: Business Insider

Kurt Deetz, another pilot who often flew Bryant to LA for games and practice, told The Journal that Zobayan was "an experienced pilot deeply familiar with the Los Angeles area."

Deetz added that only experienced pilots like Zobayan, an instrument-rated commercial pilot and flight instructor, would have been in the air in the conditions seen on the day of the crash.

According to The Journal, the National Weather Service's local office "warned of a deep marine layer, low clouds and dense fog" that morning.

The YouTuber Jeffree Star posted videos of dense fog around his nearby mansion shortly before the crash.

Source: Business Insider

Glendale is about 45 miles from John Wayne Airport and some 40 miles from Thousand Oaks.

Source: The Journal

SVFR means a pilot can fly without relying solely on instrument-based navigation, according to CNN.

Under normal visual flight rules, or VFR, visibility is adequate for a pilot to stay oriented and navigate by visual cues, often used in conjunction with instruments. SVFR clearance can be requested when conditions deteriorate during a flight that was previously under VFR.

Under SVFR, a pilot typically remains in close contact with air-traffic controllers.

A little later in the flight, the pilot asked for "flight following," in which controllers would track the flight and be in regular contact. However, the pilot was told he was flying too low for radar coverage at one point, the NTSB said.

Jennifer Homendy, an NTSB member, told reporters that the pilot, Zobayan, was "experienced" and had 8,200 hours of flight time.

Read more about VFR, SVFR, and another type of flight rules, instrument flight rules »

According to the NTSB, the helicopter climbed to about 2,300 feet to avoid a cloud layer shortly before starting a descending left turn.

Source: FlightRadar24

Source: LA Times

The pilot had been ascending to avoid a cloud layer just before the helicopter crashed, the NTSB said.

"Radar data indicates the helicopter climbed to 2,300 feet and then began a left descending turn," Homendy said.

The last radar contact with the helicopter was around 9:45 a.m., consistent with the crash's location, according to the NTSB.

The helicopter was 11,000 pounds heavy, the Times said.

Source: FlightRadar24

The NTSB said the helicopter's condition at the time of the crash was not yet clear. Pieces of the helicopter were scattered around the hillside, over about 500 to 600 feet, near the crash.

Source: Business Insider

Homendy said at a press briefing that the helicopter descended at 2,000 feet per minute.

The helicopter would have had about 800 pounds of fuel on board at that time, Deetz, the pilot who had flown Bryant before, told the Times.

"That's enough to start a pretty big fire," Deetz told the newspaper.

Officials also shut down roads leading to the crash site because so many people were trying to approach it.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that the department was protecting the area around the crash site to prevent trespassing.

However, the pilot did use an iPad, which the NTSB recovered.

Investigators are also looking for other electronics that were on board, Homendy said.

Source: Business Insider

Homendy said that the helicopter didn't have a terrain awareness and warning system, designed to provide terrain information to the pilot and prevent crashes.

The NTSB in 2006 called on the FAA to require all US-registered helicopters that carry at least six people to be equipped with the system, but Homendy said the FAA "failed to act."

The Journal reported that the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter was rolled out before the agency required the system on new aircraft.

The sheriff also made it a misdemeanor to access the crash site without permission.

The coroner said three of the bodies were recovered on the afternoon of the crash and the six others were removed the next day. All the bodies were taken to the department's forensic science center for identification.

It was likely extremely hard to fly at the time.

At 9:51 a.m., minutes after the crash, the nearby Van Nuys Airport reported visibility of 2.5 miles with 80% relative humidity and a ceiling of 1,300 feet, as well as haze, The Washington Post reported.

The Journal said that while it was too early for definitive answers about what went wrong, safety experts said the "crash highlights two of the biggest issue causes of chopper accidents: low-altitude operations and pilot disorientation about nearby structures or terrain in low visibility."

Homendy told reporters that the speed of the aircraft is "still something we have to analyze as part of our investigation."

Experts said the crash was more likely caused by the bad weather.

"The likelihood of a catastrophic twin-engine failure on that aircraft — it just doesn't happen," Deetz told the Times.

In February 2021, just over a year after the crash, the NTSB released the final conclusions of their investigation. The investigation confirmed that the crash happened due to the pilot and was also tied to weather conditions.

The pilot had lost contact with flight radars moments before the crash, per the report.

The report stated that when the pilot tried to fly from 1,500 feet to 4,000 feet to get above the cloud cover, he lost contact with radar services. A first controller told him he would no longer be able to assist if he did that and was cut off until a second controller was able to connect with the pilot around 2,300 feet up.

"The second controller was not aware of the aircraft, as services had previously been terminated, so asked the pilot to identify the flight," the report stated. "The controller then asked the pilot his intentions, to which he replied he was climbing to 4,000 feet. There were no further transmissions."

The helicopter crashed at 9:44 a.m. that day, plummeting from 2,300 feet into a rocky mountain face that was 1,500 feet above ground level.

In June 2021, Vanessa Bryant and the surviving family members of the victims of the crash settled a lawsuit against Island Helicopters in federal court, according to NBC.

A year later, Bryant and Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter died in the crash, took Los Angeles County first responders to trial over illicit crash site photos that Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies and County Fire officials took and circulated of Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, and other victims moments after the crash. 

Los Angeles County first responders testified about the grisly crash site, and several steps that were taken to identify the helicopter. Ultimately, jurors found that the first responders had improperly taken the crash site photos and Bryant's lawyers argued that only the NTSB and Coroner's office needed to take photos of the crash.

During the emotional trial, Bryant testified about the moment she received the call that the helicopter might have crashed after not hearing from Kobe for longer than usual, and traveling to the Las Virgenes water district to receive the news. She also spoke about the suicidal ideations she dealt with in the aftermath of the crash, compounded by learning about the photos first responders had taken.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, a close friend of the Bryant family, testified about returning to the crash site with Vanessa Bryant 6 months after it happened, to "touch the soil from where they went to heaven."