Los Angeles (AFP)

Police, firefighters, televisions, tourists: helicopters are ubiquitous in the skies of Los Angeles but remain a niche market for daily transportation, reserved for a handful of businessmen and wealthy celebrities seeking to avoid saturated roads, like the late basketball player Kobe Bryant.

"It is not so common because in Los Angeles, people still love their car. It is also a question of means: a machine like (Sikorsky S-76 from Kobe Bryant) is 4,000 dollars a l "about an hour, the pilot earns at least 100,000 dollars a year. It is not within the reach of anyone", explains to AFP Philippe Lesourd, helicopter pilot and instructor who has been practicing for 29 years old in California.

Apart from Kobe Bryant, the Kardashian family and other wealthy celebrities, "there are also businessmen who do it because indeed, it goes much faster", about five to six times more than the car, especially with the traffic of Los Angeles, adds Lesourd.

The NBA star began to take an interest in private helicopters around 2006, seduced by the idea of ​​being able to accompany his daughters to school in the morning, to fly to his stadium in central Los Angeles for training. , and to be back in time for school leaving at Newport Beach, about 60 km further south.

The route required only fifteen minutes by helicopter, compared to at least two hours by car during rush hour.

"I had to find a solution to be able to train and devote myself to my work without sacrificing the time spent with family," said the Lakers player.

After his retirement in 2016, he continued to rent a private aircraft and the services of a pilot for his trips.

The basketball player was in his regular helicopter on Sunday morning when it crashed into a hillside near Los Angeles. Eight others were killed in the accident, including her 13-year-old daughter, whom Kobe Bryant was accompanying to a basketball game.

- California in the lead -

The causes of the disaster have not yet been determined, but the entire area was in fog.

"He should have said + we take the car + or stop somewhere and wait two hours for it to rise," said Philippe Lesourd.

For him, the most plausible explanation is that the pilot of Kobe Bryant "entered the clouds and it was there that he lost control of the aircraft".

"This is called spatial disorientation. It is a phenomenon that is very well known, that is to say it is absolutely necessary to have a reference point on the ground. A helicopter is unstable, not like a car or An airplane must always be actively controlled at its altitude. When you are in the clouds, your brain no longer knows where the top and the bottom are, as when you dive, "explains Mr. Lesourd.

The Kobe Bryant pilot had to be experienced because "air taxi" - the transport of passengers "on demand" - requires a very specific and strict permit "like an airline", he noted.

"It is necessary to declare the pilots, of periodic training, that the pilots follow drug screening programs", details Philippe Lesourd, for whom few helicopter companies have this type of certificate, even in Los Angeles.

"It remains a minority because there is not so much demand as that (...) Famous people still have car drivers more often than drivers," he smiles.

According to the statistics by state available, California leads the number of helicopter accidents in the United States, 177 recorded between 2007 and 2016, or approximately 12% of the national total (1,457).

The helicopter is safer on average than the plane in this country, with a fatal accident rate of 0.82 per 100,000 flight hours in 2019, or 55 deaths in 24 accidents.

But according to figures from the helicopter safety group, private flights are by far the worst students of the lot. From 2009 to 2019, they represented only 3% of flight hours but 26% of fatal accidents over the period.

© 2020 AFP