Chilling home security footage just emerged that includes the audio of the final seconds of Kobe Bryant’s doomed helicopter ride. The tragic crash resulted in the death of the 41-year-old NBA legend alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others on Sunday morning.
The new footage adds heart-wrenching detail to the day’s devastating events. Video footage released earlier this week showed the helicopter flying erratically moments before the crash. This video and audio provides the staggering conclusion.
Final Seconds Of Kobe Bryant’s Flight
Daily Mail reported that Calabasas, California resident Ronna Leavitt provided the 43 second clip from her Nest security system, which captured the helicopter flight’s final moments.
In the home security footage, which has a time stamp of 9:45am, the Sikorsky S-76B aircraft is heard whirring in the sky. Then, it crashes with a thud and the audio goes eerily silent.
Ronna Leavitt lives near the crash site where #KobeBryant and eight others were killed. She says this @ring video from her home captured the audio of the helicopter in its final moments.
She says the helicopter flew above her housing complex before crashing. @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/wWKc4efdUB
— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) January 29, 2020
Leavitt explained that the helicopter flew above her home and did a U-turn before crashing, killing the future NBA Hall of Famer, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others.
Americans continue to grieve the loss of the Bryants as well as members of the Altobelli family, including baseball coach John, wife Keri, and daughter Alyssa who played travel basketball with Gianna Bryant; Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser; mother and daughter, Sarah and Payton Chester; and also the helicopter pilot, Ara Zobayan.
RELATED: Celebrities And NBA Players Respond To Death Of Kobe Bryant
Helicopter Experts Weigh In
The new footage adds to the bigger picture being pieced together of the tragic flight.
Randy Waldman, a helicopter flight instructor who lives in Los Angeles, said that the radar tracking data from the flight leads him to believe that the pilot became disoriented in the heavy fog present the morning of the crash.
The pilot was told by air traffic controllers to increase their height. The helicopter was climbing before it made a left descending turn.
The fog in Southern California was so heavy that particular day that the Los Angeles Police Department grounded their own helicopters, deciding that it was unsafe to fly them.
Waldman explained that the helicopter’s speed “means he was completely out of control and in a dive.”
“Once you get disoriented your body senses completely tell you the wrong thing. You have no idea which way is up or down,” he said. “If you’re flying visually, if you get caught in a situation where you can’t see out the windshield, the life expectancy of the pilot and the aircraft is maybe 10, 15 seconds.”
NTSB investigator Bill English added, “The main impact was about 20 to 30 feet from that small hill, but there were other higher hills surrounding it…it’s in a canyon with small hills within it.”
Investigators also said that the helicopter did not have a terrain warning system which could have told the pilot he was plunging towards the hillside.
Video Footage Of Helicopter
Earlier this week, footage emerged showing Bryant’s helicopter circling in the sky minutes before crashing.
I try and video /photograph all the weird stuff happening above my house in Glendale,CA. Unfortunately this morning I didn’t realize I was filming the helicopter Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others were in 31 minutes before they crashed . RIP pic.twitter.com/8zdiplvEbv
— THEIR ONLY DREAMS (@theironlydreams) January 27, 2020
In the end, Waldman said Bryant’s helicopter pilot likely should not have taken off that day. He also said, “He could have turned around and gone back to a safer place with better visibility.”
But, we all know the saying about hindsight.