BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS coming out of the USA states that basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine people killed yesterday morning (Jan. 27) when a helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasa, California.
According to CNN, the 41-year-old Bryant and his daughter were expected at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks for a basketball game scheduled for Sunday.
His daughter was expected to play in the game with the Lady Mavericks, a team that he was expected to coach.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Daryl Osby said the crash occurred about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles and had caused a brush fire.
Earlier yesterday, officials were tightlipped on the names of those who died in the crash. CNN however reported that Tony Altobelli said his brother, Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, 56; John's daughter Alyssa and wife Keri were killed in the crash.
Altobelli was a former assistant baseball coach at the University of Houston, the school said.
Alyssa Altobelli and Gianna Bryant were teammates, Tony Altobelli said.
Christina Mauser, an assistant girls’ basketball coach at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar, California, was killed in the crash, her husband Matt Mauser, wrote on his Facebook page.
"My kids and I are devastated. We lost our beautiful wife and mom today in a helicopter crash," he wrote.
The media house stated that Tony Imbrenda, a County Fire Department Captain, said he did not immediately have any information about whether the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter had radioed a distress signal.
"Individuals that saw the aircraft said it was coming down at a fairly significant rate of speed and impacted the ground on the hillside," he told reporters.
Imbrenda also reportedly said he did not know from where the helicopter took off or where it was headed.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registry database, the helicopter was built in 1991 and was registered to Island Express Holding Corp.
The FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI are currently investigating the crash.
According to CNN Meteorologist Michael Guy, there was extremely low visibility at the time of the crash and conditions were foggy and cloudy with a drizzle.
Pictures taken shortly after the crash showed fog in the area and the relative humidity was 100%, which meant that the air was like soup, Guy said.
Due to the foggy conditions, the Los Angeles Police Department had grounded its helicopters yesterday morning, and police spokesman Josh Rubenstein told CNN that the weather conditions did not meet the minimum standards for flying.
