- NBA: Lakers and Los Angeles prepare to fire Kobe Bryant
The legal medicine services responsible for the helicopter accident in which nine people died, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna , have officially identified the body of the former Lakers player. "Through the use of fingerprints, investigators identified three men and one woman who were on the plane," authorities said.
The remains of John Altobelli and Sarah Chester were also identified. "Investigators are still working on the identification of the remaining five deceased."
The authorities recovered between Sunday and Monday the nine bodies of the disaster site, an intricate mountainous area in Calabasas, southwest of Los Angeles. The accident happened on Sunday morning. The five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers was traveling in a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter from Orange County, where he lived, to his Mamba sports academy in Thousand Oaks , where Gianna had a basketball game.
The news of his death shocked the entire world, starting with his own Los Angeles neighbors who watched him play for 20 years. In a square located in front of the Staples Center , home of the Lakers, several improvised altars were raised in honor of the legend, with balls, slippers, caps, flowers and candles.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is dedicated to the investigation of civil aviation accidents, released on Tuesday a video in which you can see closely the debris and ash that left the impact of the aircraft, unrecognizable . "The range of descent was more than 2,000 feet ( 600 meters) per minute, " said Jennifer Homendy, a member of the NTSB team assigned to the case, at a press conference. "It was a fairly steep descent at high speed ." In his last contact with the controllers, he was flying at 2,300 feet.
The agency plans to publish a preliminary report in 10 days and the final one in 12-18 months. The helicopter did not have a terrain proximity alert (TAS) device , which was not required, although the NTSB recommended that federal authorities request it . The helicopter also had no black box, which is also not a requirement for this type of aircraft. The researchers found an iPad , possibly of the pilot, very experienced with more than 8,000 flight hours , which will be analyzed.
The weather remains an unknown and crucial part of the investigation. That Sunday the fog was strong enough for the police and the sheriff to leave their own helicopters on the ground . "We have an expert meteorologist on the team that is analyzing the weather and making decisions to fly that day," he said.
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