The NTSB board determined that a terrain-awareness warning system wouldn’t have prevented the crash.īruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the NTSB board, said Zobayan “knew the terrain, he had been flying in this area for a decade, he had over 8,000 (flight) hours, he could look out the windshield and see he was getting into instrument conditions and went contrary to all of his training.” Once he was unable to see his surroundings because of the clouds, the pilot should have relied on his instruments for guidance, NTSB officials said, but it is unclear if he did so. Several pilots familiar with flying in low visibility said they believe Zobayan likely got disoriented in the thick clouds. While still flying west above the 101, Zobayan suddenly made a left turn deeper into the cloudy area – records show he told air traffic controllers he would try to ascend to 4,000 feet to come out on top of the clouds.īut altitude data show he was actually descending, according to the NTSB.Ī firefighter who has flown over the area numerous times has described the canyon as trapping the occasional cloud bank as if it were in a bowl. The trouble began almost as soon as Zobayan encountered the dense clouds of the Malibu Canyon area. He stayed at around 1,400 feet as he cut southwest to above the 101 Freeway, heading toward the Ventura County border. He flew northwest above the I-5 Freeway over Burbank and the San Fernando Valley before turning west over the 118 Freeway. NTSB documents show Zobayan’s flight path took him above several major highways that morning on the way to Camarillo. Forty minutes later, the aircraft was heard cruising low over Calabasas before crashing into the side of a hill. The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter carrying them took off from John Wayne Airport just after 9 a.m.
“Good people can make a bad decision, and we wanted to get to the bottom of why,” Bill English, the investigator in charge, told the board.įlying with the 41-year-old Bryant that day were his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, 56, his wife, Keri, 46, and their 14-year-old daughter Alyssa Mamba Academy basketball coach Christina Mauser, 38 and mother and daughter Sarah, 45, and Payton Chester, 13. Investigators and board members did note that Zobayan was an experienced and well-regarded pilot. NTSB Board member Michael Graham, a career aviator, said the pilot “didn’t even follow the training.”Īmong what the NTSB board called several “poor decisions” made by the pilot was traveling, leading up to the crash, at excessive speeds in bad weather.
Investigators said Zobayan should have steadied the helicopter, climbed slowly and reached out to air traffic controllers to declare an emergency. “It’s not like in this crash the pilot was just flying along and didn’t know where the hills were and blundered into the side of a hill,” he said.
“We are talking about spatial disorientation, where literally the pilot may not know which way is up or down, whether he or she is leaning left or right,” NTSB Board Chairman Robert L.
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