Basketball

Vanessa Bryant and Families of Crash Victims Settle With Helicopter Company


Vanessa Bryant, the widow of the basketball star Kobe Bryant, and the family members of the other victims in a deadly helicopter crash in January 2020 reached a settlement with the charter company that operated the helicopter.

Terms of the settlement were confidential and it is awaiting court approval.

Vanessa Bryant had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Island Express Helicopters, arguing that the company had not properly trained the helicopter’s pilot, Ara Zobayan, and that he had shown negligence in his flying.

Kobe Bryant, a longtime member of the Los Angeles Lakers who was recently posthumously inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, his daughter Gianna, and seven other people on board were killed when the helicopter slammed into a hill near Calabasas, Calif.

In February, investigators announced that the crash had most likely been caused by Zobayan’s flying into clouds on a morning shrouded with fog, in a violation of federal rules. The conditions blinded him and caused him to become disoriented, they found.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.