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Feds: Pilot in Kobe Bryant crash shouldn't have flown in cloudy conditions

Associated Press

Los Angeles — The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into a foggy Calabasas hillside one year ago, killing Kobe Bryant and eight others on board, should not have flown into cloudy conditions where he became disoriented, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said pilot Ara Zobayan suffered spatial disorientation while he navigated through clouds and fog-covered terrain on the Jan. 26, 2020, flight from Orange County to Camarillo.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Zobayan was flying under visual flight rules, yet the “pilot continued his flight into clouds.