The Los Angeles County coroner’s office announced that Kobe Bryant and his and Vanessa Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna lost their lives to “blunt trauma.” It has come to light that it is the same official cause of death for the seven other victims who were on board the helicopter that crashed in Calabasas on Sunday. The sudden tragic deaths of the nine onboard have been certified as an “accident.”
The S-76B helicopter that carried Kobe, Gianna and seven others plunged at a rate of “2,000 feet per minute” before crashing into a mountain, as revealed by the National Transportation Safety Board
“We know this was a high-energy impact crash, and the helicopter was in a descending left bank,” an official revealed during a press conference two days after the tragedy, on Tuesday (Jan. 28).
It was also revealed that the helicopter was not equipped with “terrain awareness and warning system” (TAWS), which may have been the cause for the pilot not being aware of the terrain around him, eventually leading to the tragic crash claiming nine lives.
A press release has revealed that the bodies of the victims have been recovered from the crash site.
“On Sunday afternoon, personnel from the department’s Special Operations Response Team (SORT) recovered three bodies from the helicopter wreckage located in the 4200 block of Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas,” a press release said via a news portal. “The next day, the search continued for the other six helicopter occupants. Soon after, their bodies were located, removed from the crash site and transported to the department’s Forensic Science Center.”
The victims are being identified through “the use of fingerprints.” Investigators have identified Kobe Bryant, John Altobelli, Sarah Chester, and the pilot Ara Zobayan, while the other victims are still being officially identified.