Following the death of popular NBA star, Kobe Bryant, his wife, Vanessa Bryant, has launched a lawsuit against the company that owned the helicopter that killed her husband and daughter alongside seven others some few weeks ago.
Kobe Bryant died alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna in a deadly crash as they were on their way to basketball practice. We have sighted a report on TMZ and the lawsuit alleged that Island Express was only allowed to fly under visual flight rules, and the conditions the day of the crash were not conducive for such flying. The lawsuit further claimed that the pilot was going 180 miles per hour in the heavy fog in a steep decline adding that the pilot failed to properly monitor and assess the weather prior to takeoff. The pilot reportedly failed to obtain proper weather data prior to the flight, failed to abort the flight when he knew of the cloudy condition, failed to maintain control of the helicopter and failed to avoid “natural obstacles” in the flight path.The pilot, Ara George Zobayan, per the lawsuit, was disciplined in 2015 for violating the visual flight rule minimums by flying into airspace of reduced visibility. Additionally, the helicopter was reportedly not safe, although emphatically state what was unsafe. Per the TMZ report, the lawsuit does not list an amount of damages sought, but Vanessa is asking for punitive damages, claiming the pilot and Island Express were reckless, and the damages could be untold millions.