Air Disasters (2022) Season 17 Episode 10: Kobe Bryant
Air Disasters (2022) Season 17 Episode 10: Kobe Bryant
Follow investigators as they piece together clues about the crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others.
#documentary #historical
Follow investigators as they piece together clues about the crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others.
#documentary #historical
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TVTranscript
00:00Breaking news, five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash.
00:12A high-profile aviation accident devastates Los Angeles.
00:17I'm just out of last words right now.
00:19NTSB investigators quickly inspect the wreckage.
00:23All the mechanical systems and electronic systems appear to be working fine.
00:27The data provides a detailed picture of the entire flight.
00:31So they get airborne just after nine and then they get held up for 12 minutes.
00:35November 2, Echo X-ray, hold outside Burbank airspace.
00:38Okay, we'll hold outside Burbank.
00:41Certainly, this added to the time of the flight.
00:44He's bombing along here at about 140 knots.
00:48Investigators must consider the unthinkable.
00:51Was he trying to make up for the last time?
00:53A lot of people wondered if Kobe being Kobe might have put pressure on this pilot.
00:58But there's no evidence to support that suspicion.
01:01So what happened to this guy?
01:23Hey, Rick, so I'm going to go straight north to Dodger Stadium around Burbank and follow
01:37the 118 to get up and around the weather down here.
01:40What's the visibility at Burbank?
01:42Broken clouds with five-mile visibility.
01:44We're good to go.
01:46Ara Zabayan is a helicopter pilot with more than 8,000 flying hours.
01:51They'll be here in about 15 minutes.
01:53I'll meet them here and help get them loaded.
01:54Roger that.
01:55He's the chief pilot for Island Express, a helicopter charter company based in California's
02:00Los Angeles County.
02:03Island Express is a family-owned company that's been in Southern California for a number of
02:07decades and they're known as a company that can provide VIP helicopter service.
02:14Among their high-profile regular customers, media star Kylie Jenner, LA Clipper superstar
02:20Markle Y. Leonard, and today's client, L.A. Lakers great Kobe Bryant.
02:27Kobe Bryant was one of the best basketball players of all time.
02:31He's an iconic Los Angeles Laker.
02:33He was drafted by the team in 1996 when he was 17 years old.
02:37He became the heart and soul of the team for 20 years.
02:40He won five world championships.
02:41He went to the All-Star Game 18 times and really just became a huge star in his own
02:47right apart from the team and that he was recognized simply by his first name, Kobe.
02:52How's everyone doing today?
02:55Ara Zabayan has flown Kobe and his family dozens of times.
02:59Let's get going.
03:02Kobe and the pilot of this helicopter had really become friends because he had piloted
03:06him so many times around Southern California that they developed a relationship.
03:12Kobe Bryant flies in a luxury Sikorsky S-76B.
03:17It's configured to carry eight passengers.
03:19The Sikorsky 76B is sort of like an air limousine in that it's quite common for VIP travel.
03:27I think heads of state use it in different countries and it's also used as sort of an
03:31air ambulance in some situations.
03:34It's spacious and reliable.
03:36It really considered about as safe as they come.
03:40Kobe, his daughter Gianna, and six others are headed to a basketball tournament near
03:45Camarillo, 80 miles away.
03:50Kobe is the team's coach, Gianna the star player.
03:56Today's 30-minute flight will take the helicopter north past Burbank and then west towards Camarillo.
04:03Zabayan will follow two highways for guidance.
04:07The 5, northwest, and the 101, west to Camarillo.
04:11Hey everyone, it's about to get loud back there.
04:22Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray, Island Express, for East 1 departure.
04:26Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray, cleared for departure from Island Express, have a good flight.
04:31Good flight to Echo X-ray.
04:34Just after 9 a.m., the helicopter lifts off from Santa Ana.
04:42The destination is Kobe Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy.
04:46It's a regular journey for Zabayan.
04:48He flew this same group there and back yesterday.
04:53He was a very experienced pilot.
04:55He was able to fly the helicopter at speed, at low altitude, in a very dense airspace
05:02and deal with weather at the same time.
05:07Since his early days as a player, Kobe Bryant has preferred helicopter travel to the crowded
05:11freeways of Southern California.
05:15He routinely uses helicopters for his personal and professional travel.
05:20Kobe loved to fly by helicopter just because he loved how much time it saved him.
05:25Kurt Dietz also flew for Island Express.
05:29Flying in LA is like nowhere else.
05:32There is a large congestion of multiple types of airspace in a small area.
05:40So you're always in and out of airspace.
05:45Today's flight will first need to pass through the controlled airspace surrounding Burbank
05:50and then Van Nuys.
05:53Burbank Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray, Sikorsky Helicopter, approaching the Zoo for a 101
05:58westbound transition.
06:01Zabayan requests permission to pass through Burbank's airspace.
06:04It's a very busy airport and the controllers, they know what they're doing.
06:10November 7-2, Echo X-ray, Burbank Tower, Burbank Class Charlie is IFR, say intentions.
06:17Burbank is only accepting IFR flights or instrument flight rules, which requires pilots to navigate
06:22solely on instruments.
06:26Zabayan, however, is only authorized to fly using visual flight reference, or VFR.
06:33The threshold for visual flight is normally three miles.
06:36The Burbank airport was two and a half miles.
06:41With insufficient visibility for VFR, the controller denies his request.
06:47But Zabayan's been flying helicopters in Southern California long enough to know a way around
06:52this restriction.
06:53Asking for special VFR transition to the 101 westbound.
06:58A special VFR allows him to operate at lower than standard visibilities, down to one mile
07:06visibility.
07:07And that's an agreement you have with the tower saying, I'm here, I want to go there,
07:14I'm requesting a special VFR.
07:17Special VFR allows Zabayan to navigate visually through the area of low visibility.
07:25November 2, Echo X-ray, hold outside Burbank airspace, I have an aircraft going around
07:29in an inbound citation.
07:31The controller authorizes Zabayan to cross into Burbank airspace.
07:36But under the rules of special VFR, he must now wait until the airspace is clear of traffic.
07:43Okay, we'll hold outside Burbank to Echo X-ray.
07:46Hey, everyone, we'll have to circle here for a few minutes while we wait for a few planes
07:51to get out of our way.
07:52It shouldn't delay us too much.
07:54Anytime you have a hold, it puts a great deal of pressure on you as a pilot, because you're
08:02going to be late.
08:03Finally, after holding for 12 minutes, the Burbank airspace clears, and Zabayan is allowed
08:14to pass through.
08:15November 2, Echo X-ray, cleared through Burbank, maintain special VFR.
08:21Copy that, we'll maintain special VFR, Copter 2, Echo X-ray.
08:27From Burbank, the helicopter will follow the I-5 freeway northwest, and then the 118 around
08:33the top of Van Nuys airspace, then south to follow the 101 to Camarillo.
08:40Landmarks for flying aircraft in L.A. is really important.
08:46Kobe Bryant and the other passengers are anticipated to arrive in Camarillo just a few minutes
08:51behind schedule.
08:55Van Nuys, Helicopter 2, Echo X-ray with you for the special VFR transition.
08:59Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray, cleared into Van Nuys along the 118 freeway westbound.
09:07The helicopter is cleared to pass through the airspace near Van Nuys.
09:13Zabayan now dials in the final controller for this journey, the Southern California
09:18Radar Approach Controller, who will handle the flight until it reaches Camarillo.
09:23SoCal, Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray with you at 570 to Camarillo.
09:29Helicopter 7-2, Echo X-ray, SoCal Approach.
09:32Roger, are you just going to stay down that low all the way to Camarillo?
09:36The helicopter is flying 570 feet above the ground.
09:40Yes, sir, low altitude to Echo X-ray.
09:45Zabayan needs to stay below the clouds, which are around 1,000 feet above the ground.
09:50Where he went was the lowest route available because of the weather.
09:58Roger, I'm going to use radar with you shortly.
10:02But at the low altitude in hilly terrain,
10:04controllers won't be able to maintain radar contact with the flight.
10:10The controllers would not see him on radar, he was so low.
10:14Copy that to Echo X-ray.
10:29Less than 10 minutes from his destination, the visibility gets worse.
10:34In the Los Angeles Basin area, it's well known to get this rain layer
10:39of colder water temperatures, warmer air,
10:42where you get these low clouds and you get lower visibilities.
10:47Zabayan radios in his intention to climb above some low clouds.
10:53We're going to go ahead and start our climb to go above the layers.
10:59Two Echo X-ray, where are you?
11:10Just west of Van Nuys, two Echo X-ray.
11:14Two Echo X-ray, ident.
11:17The controller hasn't been tracking the helicopter.
11:20He needs Zabayan to flash his transponder signal so he can locate it on his screen.
11:25You press a button on your transponder that flashes on their radar screen
11:30so they know where you are.
11:32Ident.
11:38Two Echo X-ray, say intentions.
11:41We're climbing to 4,000, two Echo X-ray.
11:46And what are you going to do when you reach altitude?
11:55In the hills near Calabasas,
12:11witnesses see a helicopter emerge from the clouds and hit the ground.
12:15A team tracking Kobe Bryant's flight realizes something's gone wrong.
12:29The helicopter should have landed in Camarillo by now.
12:33It has disappeared from their flight tracker.
12:36We have some breaking news.
12:38A helicopter crashed in Southern California.
12:41Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies responding to reports of that crash
12:45just before 10 a.m. Pacific time.
12:48It's located in the Calabasas area.
12:51It doesn't take long before the media is reporting the tragic news.
12:56Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter,
12:59along with seven other people have been killed in the helicopter crash.
13:04It's just one of those things where you can read the words and
13:08you kind of process them, but you don't really.
13:11It's hard for it to sink in because you got to think about that he's never coming back.
13:17He was the guy, he was my icon, my role model who got me into the sport, who got me playing.
13:23I'm just at a loss for words right now.
13:26You won't see another player like him again.
13:29He will be missed.
13:31There is this tremendous outpouring of grief in Los Angeles.
13:35People flocked to Staples Center, left all kinds of different mementos.
13:42This is much bigger than basketball, I think,
13:44just because I think Kobe was a real symbol, you know, of just hard work and dedication.
13:50Everybody was really just heartsick by what happened.
13:54Love you, Kobe.
13:55Love you, Gigi, and all the family.
13:58We're here to conduct a safety investigation.
14:02And our mission is not to just determine what happened, but why it happened and how it happened
14:09to prevent a similar accident from ever happening again.
14:15The NTSB begins its investigation at the crash site, looking for any clues to explain why a
14:21state-of-the-art helicopter being flown by a highly experienced pilot
14:26crashed 24 miles short of its destination.
14:31The first thing you do at the crash site is try to see did all the components make it to the crash
14:36site? Was there any kind of mechanical failure? Did a rotor blade break or a tail rotor come off?
14:44The team uses a drone to scan the accident site.
14:47Look at this accident site. It's very clear this was a relatively high rate of descent.
14:53The helicopter hit, and the wreckage then bounced about 90 feet to where it came to a rest.
14:59So there was a lot more vertical speed here than you have at horizontal speed.
15:05And all the parts of the helicopter made it to the accident site.
15:08Investigators study flight control surfaces,
15:11the engines and rotors, as well as the helicopter's flight instruments.
15:16Examinations components found that there was no evidence of any pre-impact failures,
15:22that all the mechanical systems, electronic systems,
15:25and all the other components were in good working order.
15:28There was no sign of any kind of mechanical or mechanical failure.
15:34The NTSB's Bill English has led investigations into some of the world's most notorious
15:40aviation accidents. We need to cover all our bases on this one.
15:45Knowing that there was a high-profile person on board, obviously NTSB responded
15:50with a major investigations team. Okay, he takes off at 9.07,
15:56he's going to take off at 9.07, he's going to take off at 9.07,
16:00Okay, he takes off at 9.07, he flies northwest.
16:06To better understand what happened, investigators pieced together a detailed
16:11flight path from an ADS-B system that's on board the Sikorsky helicopter.
16:18ADS-B data is like transponder data. Controllers can see and it's recorded
16:24your airspeed, altitude, and headings, other information.
16:29And so you have this plotting capability.
16:32Look like there's some kind of hold here at Burbank.
16:35He follows the I-5 to Van Nuys, and then south to the 101,
16:40which he follows until he makes this U-turn straight into a hillside.
16:45You would see this turn to the left, where he's coming back around or doing something.
16:50And that question is now in the investigation, what's exactly the pilot doing here?
16:56Let's take a look at the visibility.
16:59They study visibility reports from weather stations along the route.
17:04He did manage to avoid the worst of it here, a bit socked in near
17:08Burbank and Van Nuys, but nothing he can't get through.
17:14He had four miles of visibility.
17:16When he got near Burbank airport, it was two and a half miles visibility.
17:20That's still totally flyable for him.
17:22In fact, by his operation specifications, he could go down to one mile visibility.
17:27Okay, I get it if the visibility was down to zero, but this wasn't that bad.
17:33So what happened to this guy?
17:35Why do we have a high-time pilot in an aircraft that's capable of flight
17:40and visibility conditions he should have been able to handle, either lose control
17:45or somehow inadvertently fly his helicopter to the ground?
17:48That becomes the key piece of this investigation.
17:52We need to figure out what he could actually see.
18:03We have a request for the public.
18:05We're looking for photos of the weather in the area of the crash.
18:13If you could send those photos to witness at ntsb.gov.
18:19Investigators make a plea to the public for evidence regarding the Island Express helicopter crash
18:25that took the lives of Kobe Bryant and eight others.
18:30They're looking for clues to explain how the pilot, Ara Zabayan,
18:35ended up hitting a hillside on a route he knew well.
18:39More than 8,300 flying hours.
18:42Instructor on the S-76, chief pilot at Island Express.
18:47Apparently, Kobe's favorite pilot.
18:50Bit of a superstar.
18:53Yeah.
18:55This pilot was not a rookie who just got his license.
18:59He was one of LA's top helicopter pilots,
19:02working for one of its top companies with some of its most high-profile clients.
19:08Records show that at 7 a.m. on the morning of the flight,
19:11Zabayan checked the weather for his pre-flight risk assessment
19:15and determined that even though there were low-hanging clouds blanketing the area,
19:20the flight was low risk.
19:23A risk assessment is weather, anxiety, sleep, all these factors that go into a flight.
19:32But a low-lying cloud layer surrounding Los Angeles, known as a marine layer,
19:37forced Zabayan to alter his regular, more direct route.
19:40Because of the weather, he'd flew more inland than he normally does.
19:44Sort of a backdoor way in to where they were going.
19:48Based on the forecast, his plan was okay.
19:51Pretty good visibility all along the way.
19:54So what went wrong?
19:57Investigators need to understand the exact conditions
20:01Zabayan flew into the final moments of the flight.
20:07These are three separate cameras.
20:09These are three separate cameras all facing south toward the 101.
20:12Couldn't ask for a better view.
20:14The NTSB's plea for pictures of the weather pays off.
20:18A nearby baseball facility had surveillance cameras pointed at key sections of the flight path
20:24as the helicopter flew past.
20:26Let's see what this one shows on a clear day.
20:30Investigators compare images from the same camera taken on a clear day
20:35to images recorded at the time of the accident.
20:38Yeah, perfect. Okay, so one minute before the accident,
20:42the helicopter would be bombing along here. Can't see it.
20:46How close did it get to the camera?
20:49Best view of it would be here. That's 4,400 feet.
20:55The helicopter is less than a mile from the camera, but isn't visible.
20:59Okay, so what about larger objects? These hills, for instance.
21:04Visible on a clear day, but not at the time of the crash.
21:08That hilltop is 8,000 feet away.
21:12So visibility beneath the clouds was less than 8,000 feet.
21:15It's a mile and a half.
21:17The video study tells investigators that around the time of the accident,
21:22Zabayan would not have been able to see any further than one and a half miles.
21:28You're only allowed to fly in visibilities one mile or greater.
21:34A mile and a half? Pretty low. Pretty minimal.
21:42Investigators know Zabayan would have been able to fly
21:46safely below the clouds with one and a half mile visibility.
21:50The water feed was actually above the cloud base.
21:53But he was only 450 feet above the ground.
21:59The cloud ceiling, the base of the cloud layer,
22:01was reported to be 1,100 feet near Van Nuys.
22:06But Zabayan was flying about 450 feet above the ground,
22:10which would put him well below the clouds.
22:14These are images from the camera on the 101 facing west.
22:19Okay, you can just make him out here actually heading into fairly heavy clouds.
22:25Same camera, three seconds later, he's disappeared.
22:29And then we have a witness who says that she saw the helicopter
22:32disappear into what she described as the thick wall of heavy clouds.
22:38The NTSB had quite a few very good witnesses, in my opinion,
22:41and they also had cameras in the area so they could collect
22:45data in real time of what this pilot would have been encountering.
22:50Their surveillance data shows him only 450 feet above the ground.
22:54So the cloud base was no more than 450 feet above the ground,
22:58not the 1,100 feet which was being reported along its route.
23:04The report at an airport five miles away can be greatly different
23:09than what you're encountering because of uplifting winds
23:13and that type of thing around the hills.
23:16The area near Calabasas has its own unique climate.
23:19The Malibu Canyon can channel fog up from the Pacific Ocean.
23:23That fog is known to pool precisely where Zabayan was seen flying into clouds.
23:30The fog gathers here at Merle Road,
23:33and this is where our witnesses saw him enter the clouds.
23:37Investigators have determined that just over a minute before the accident,
23:42Zabayan flew into dense clouds that would have reduced his visibility to the clouds.
23:47It would have reduced his visibility to near zero.
23:51That clinches it. He flew into IMC.
23:57IMC, instrument meteorological conditions,
24:00is when visibility is so poor that pilots need to fly only on instruments.
24:07They were only authorized to fly under visual flight rules.
24:10Legally, he's not allowed to enter.
24:12He's only allowed to go in visual conditions only, and yet he did.
24:17In aviation, there's a term for VFR pilots who fly into low visibility conditions.
24:23It's called an inadvertent encounter with IMC.
24:27It can happen at night when you fly into a cloud that you didn't see.
24:31It can happen that you're choosing to avoid something and you inadvertently go into a cloud.
24:37Unfortunately, it's an accident that happens way too often.
24:41Inadvertent IMC is a leading cause of aviation accidents over the past 10 years.
24:46More than 80% of them are fatal.
24:49You can't see where the horizon is, and you can't see the sky from the ground.
24:54You don't know visually which is our main sense.
24:57You have to rely on secondary senses, such as sense of balance.
25:01And there are illusions that come up.
25:04An inadvertent encounter with instrument conditions is so potentially dangerous
25:09that pilots are trained to do whatever they can to avoid it.
25:13How did he let himself get into this situation?
25:21Let's see his speeds and altitudes.
25:24The data from the ADS-B gives investigators a detailed picture of the helicopter's altitude
25:30and speed as it approached Calabasas.
25:32If Zabayan tried to avoid the worsening conditions, the data would show it.
25:38He's barely above the ground.
25:40He's bombing along here at about 140 knots.
25:46Visibility is getting worse and worse, but he's not slowing down.
25:50He's not turning around.
25:51He just keeps going.
25:54Why?
26:00He could have turned around, landed at Van Nuys.
26:03He could have circled for a while near the airport, waiting for the conditions to improve.
26:09For whatever reason, we don't know.
26:10He chose none of those options.
26:14The team now considers the widely held belief
26:17that Zabayan was pressured to continue the flight by his high-profile passenger.
26:24A lot of people wondered after the crash happened if Kobe, being Kobe,
26:27might have put pressure on this pilot to get to where he wanted to go,
26:31because that's the whole reason that he was taking the helicopter in the first place,
26:34is to get from point A to point B and do it without any unnecessary delays.
26:39The same passengers take the same flight the day before the accident.
26:44They're scheduled to take off at 9.45, but Kobe changes that to 9.
26:51They moved it up by 45 minutes so that Kobe could watch another team or team's play
26:56in preparation for his daughter's basketball tournament on Sunday.
27:02So they get airborne just after 9, and then this happens.
27:06They're held up for 12 minutes.
27:09November 2, Echo X-ray, hold outside Burbank airspace.
27:12I have an aircraft going around in an inbound citation.
27:16Investigators know that Kobe's helicopter was held up at Burbank for 12 minutes,
27:21while Zabayan waited for traffic to clear the controlled airspace.
27:25OK, we'll hold outside Burbank to Echo X-ray.
27:31A little more than 10 minutes later,
27:33Zabayan flew into thick cloud cover at a speed of 160 miles an hour as he approached Camarillo.
27:41In my opinion, 140 knots is probably twice the speed he should have been operating
27:45in those visual conditions. He should have slowed down.
27:50Was he trying to make up for the last time?
27:52The team digs into Kobe Bryant's previous flights with Island Express
27:56to see if there's any history of him putting pressure on pilots.
28:00He took 26 flights with Island Express last year.
28:03Not once did he pressure a pilot to keep going.
28:10Kobe would never put pressure on a pilot.
28:13I flew with him for two years.
28:15Not once was there ever any amount of pressure from him.
28:22Investigators find no evidence that Kobe Bryant or any member of his team
28:26put pressure on Zabayan to continue the flight.
28:31They had a history.
28:33They scrutinize Kobe Bryant's relationship with Ara Zabayan for anything that could
28:38have affected the pilot's behavior on the day of the accident.
28:42More than history.
28:43The director of operations says that Kobe's relationship with Ara was,
28:48quote, warm and friendly, that he trusted Ara with his girls and his family,
28:53that they always wanted Ara.
28:55But the company's VP says that their relationship was more like a friendship
29:01and that Kobe would call him Mr. Pilot Man.
29:04These guys sure were tight.
29:07The relationship may have been pressure enough.
29:13How's everyone doing today?
29:15Investigators conclude that Zabayan's close relationship with Kobe Bryant
29:19may have led to self-induced pressure to get him to his destination.
29:25Part of the concern here is that the pilot was trying to complete the mission
29:29in part to satisfy the client.
29:34Investigators soon find another important factor
29:37that may have influenced Zabayan's decision making.
29:40Six minutes before the crash, he clears a nice airspace and heads south.
29:45Tells controllers that he planned to stay low all the way to Camarillo.
29:49To stay below the clouds.
29:51Helicopter 7-2 echo X-ray.
29:53Are you just going to stay down that low all the way to Camarillo?
29:56Yes, sir. Low altitude to echo X-ray.
29:59Two minutes later, he starts following the 101,
30:02which should lead him straight into Camarillo.
30:05He bounds along the 101 for two more minutes until he hits this wall of clouds.
30:1324 miles to go.
30:16He's almost there.
30:18Almost.
30:19Zabayan was less than 10 minutes away from getting his passengers to their destination.
30:24When you're close to finishing, you have a tendency to be willing to tolerate
30:28conditions that might have caused you not to take the trip originally.
30:33The team believes Zabayan was suffering from a condition known as plan continuation bias
30:39when he decided to keep going despite deteriorating weather conditions.
30:44Plan continuation bias is an unconscious bias to continue with the original plan,
30:49even when conditions change.
30:52But in an aviation environment, it can be deadly.
30:56It doesn't take long for things to start going wrong as soon as you enter that cloud.
31:01Instead of turning around, Zabayan decides to climb above the clouds.
31:05We're going to go ahead and start our climb to go above the layers.
31:07He starts banking further and further left, descends rapidly, hits the hill here.
31:14The pilot's unusual actions lead investigators to wonder about the level of training he received.
31:22He was trained to avoid IMC and what to do if he got into it.
31:27They discover that Zabayan was well-trained to escape the precise conditions he flew into.
31:32This pilot trained routinely for inadvertent IMC situation.
31:36More than that, he was the chief pilot of the company.
31:39He set the safety standards for all the pilots,
31:43and he trained them on how to deal with instrument conditions.
31:47This is what he was taught.
31:49A review of Zabayan's training shows that he was taught to reduce his speed,
31:54but he was not taught to control his speed.
31:56A review of Zabayan's training shows that he was taught to reduce his speed,
32:02use the autopilot to climb above the clouds, and then declare an emergency.
32:08His training was good.
32:10But did Zabayan follow his training?
32:15Here he's entering an area of low visibility, still flying well above 100 knots.
32:20No evidence of slowing down.
32:22Investigators know Zabayan did not reduce speed.
32:25They now wonder if he engaged the autopilot.
32:30We're going to go ahead and start our climb to go above the layers.
32:33Look at that rate of climb.
32:341,500 feet a minute.
32:37Can't be the autopilot doing that.
32:39That exceeds the authority of the autopilot system.
32:42Therefore, this climb was being manually controlled.
32:45All right.
32:46Well, at this point, he's just trying to get above the clouds without the autopilot.
32:50The higher Zabayan climbs into the dense cloud, the worse the visibility gets.
32:56But he never asks for help.
32:58Well, he never reports an emergency.
33:01He never mentions being in IMC.
33:04The one thing he should have been saying,
33:07mayday, mayday, mayday, declaring an emergency, in for an IMC.
33:13He didn't slow down.
33:15He didn't use his autopilot.
33:16He never declared an emergency.
33:18He ignored all his training.
33:21There are basic procedures that should be followed.
33:23And you have to have very cautious approach to any sort of instrument conditions.
33:29This was not evident in the way the pilot flew that day.
33:37By ignoring his training, Zabayan found himself in a rapid climb with no visibility
33:43and without the help of the autopilot.
33:45Anne-Marie Landman studies the effects of spatial disorientation in pilots.
33:50If you take away outside visual reference from a pilot,
33:53then he or she will really have to trust the instruments.
33:57Because if you don't have outside visual reference,
34:00then any sensation that you feel can be very misleading.
34:04Did Ara Zabayan suffer the effects of disorientation after flying?
34:10Zabayan's last words show that's precisely what happened.
34:14We're climbing to 4,000, two echo x-ray.
34:17Did you hear that?
34:18It's like he completely lost his bearings.
34:22The recording tells investigators that Zabayan believed he was climbing
34:27when he was actually descending.
34:29He had no idea what was going on.
34:30He had no idea what was going on.
34:32He had no idea what was going on.
34:33He had no idea what was going on.
34:35He had no idea what was going on.
34:36Zabayan believed he was climbing when he was actually descending rapidly
34:41toward the ground in a steep left turn.
34:45It's what aviators call the graveyard spiral.
34:50So right in that aircraft, no.
34:52In a mountainous area, you're done.
34:55You're absolutely done.
34:57The team has pieced together a picture of a pilot
35:00who flew into prime conditions for causing disorientation.
35:04Zabayan's problem starts just after he flies into the cloud.
35:07He decides the best thing to do is to fly above it.
35:10But as he climbs, visibility worsens
35:13and his reference to the highway below and the horizon ahead quickly disappear.
35:19It's all but impossible for pilots to determine a plane's pitch and roll
35:23without a visual reference to their surroundings.
35:26Without visual cues, the human body is unable to maintain its spatial bearings.
35:32The result is disorientation.
35:36As the highway below veers left, Zabayan tries to stay with it.
35:41He puts the helicopter into a gradual left turn.
35:44He's not looking at the instruments at this point.
35:47He was perhaps looking down to search for the highway that he was following before.
35:52Two echo x-ray ident.
35:56Zabayan now faces a distraction that makes the situation significantly worse.
36:02He is forced to identify himself to the controller.
36:05It's not only a distraction, it forces him to move his head,
36:09which increases the risk of disorientation.
36:14We advise pilots to not move their head around
36:17when they're flying without outside visual reference.
36:20This is moving the fluid in your inner ears
36:23and this actually makes you a little bit more susceptible to illusions.
36:27The highway now veers off to the right, but he's lost sight of it.
36:32He's banking further and further to the left without even realizing it.
36:3630 seconds from impact.
36:38Disorientation sets in.
36:43The turn is so gradual and it is so slow that the onset, it seems that he's not feeling that.
36:49So for him, it still feels that he's flying level.
36:52And he gets to 1600 feet and he starts to descend without even knowing it.
36:57It's clear that prior to the accident,
37:00the pilot really did not know what the helicopter was doing
37:04because he was asked his intentions and he indicated that he was climbing to 4000 feet.
37:10We're climbing to 4000 to echo x-ray.
37:13At that point, the helicopter was not climbing.
37:16It was descending towards a crash and the pilot didn't realize it.
37:21He's now in a rapid descent and likely looking for clear skies above,
37:26not noticing what his instruments are showing.
37:29Without having outside visual references and not being focused on your instruments,
37:34it's very easy for that to happen and it does happen far too often.
37:38He's so far over, it's like he lost all his lift.
37:41He's plummeting to the ground.
37:43Graveyard spiral, classic.
37:46About a minute after entering the clouds, he hits the ground like this,
37:49almost on his side at more than 160 knots.
37:54There's no sign he ever figured out what was really happening.
37:57Kobe Bryant and eight others died as a result of an all too common scenario.
38:06A helicopter pilot flying IMC and becoming disoriented.
38:14We need something to help pilots understand that just because you feel
38:17like your body's being pushed down on the seat, doesn't mean you're climbing.
38:21That device exists and is helping train pilots in the Netherlands.
38:27The one-of-a-kind simulator lets researchers reproduce the feeling of
38:31spatial disorientation without pilots having to leave the ground.
38:37Okay, Martin, so how are you feeling now?
38:38I'm feeling pitched up.
38:40You're feeling pitched up?
38:41Yeah.
38:45Investigators hoping to prevent the kind of accident that caused ours a buy-in to
38:50get so badly disoriented, are looking closely at the work being done in labs like this one
38:57at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, or TNO.
39:03We investigate the effects of spatial disorientation on pilot performance.
39:09Zabayan believed he was climbing when he was actually descending
39:13and was unaware that he was in a steep left turn.
39:16He was suffering from two of the most common illusions affecting pilots.
39:21Somatogravic, involving a sense of pitch, and somatogyral, involving a sense of roll.
39:28Spatial disorientation is a factor in about 30% of fatal helicopter crashes.
39:36This rotating chair helps pilots experience the effect of the leans,
39:41the inability to recognize, and the fear of falling.
39:46When a pilot starts a turn, the fluid in the inner ear responds,
39:51and it's telling he or she is in a turn.
39:53But after a while, the fluid sort of settles.
39:56So it actually feels as if they're flying level again.
39:59This pilot is using his thumbs to show the direction he believes he's turning.
40:04For the first few seconds, he's right.
40:07But as the fluid in his ear settles, he no longer senses the turn.
40:11This is the identical illusion that Ara Zabayan experienced.
40:15It's why he never realized that he had entered a gradual left turn
40:19once he lost sight of the highway below,
40:22even though his instruments would have been telling him precisely that.
40:25We train them here to really trust their instruments
40:28and to really be focused on their instruments,
40:31especially in situations of low visibility.
40:35But the heart of TNO's facility is this simulation.
40:40is this simulator called Desdemona.
40:43Okay, so here's what's going to happen.
40:45You just have to wait for our mark,
40:47and then you just have to level the aircraft.
40:49But you have to do that without the instruments,
40:51so only based on your gut feeling.
40:54It's a disorientation demonstrator,
40:57which safely simulates the effects of pitch and roll illusions on pilots.
41:03It's the only one in the world.
41:05Okay, Martin, so first, you're just going to fly a little bit
41:07to get acquainted with the controls, all right?
41:10So, yeah, so you have the instruments available?
41:12Yep.
41:13Okay, let's start the simulation.
41:16Unlike simulators that are attached to the ground,
41:19Desdemona can simulate unlimited degrees of pitch, yaw, and roll,
41:24as well as the forces of acceleration.
41:27It's really important to have a simulator that can really create
41:30a constant force, or a constant force that feels like acceleration.
41:35Continuing climb.
41:35Continuing climb.
41:37Pilot Martin Kemne is about to experience the same sensation
41:41that Zabayan felt moments before the crash.
41:45The instruments in the simulator are turned off,
41:48so he must rely only on feel.
41:52Martin, how are you feeling now?
41:53I'm feeling straight ahead.
41:55I'm feeling good.
41:55I'm feeling good.
41:56I'm feeling good.
41:57I'm feeling good.
41:57I'm feeling good.
41:57I'm feeling good.
41:58I'm feeling good.
41:59I'm feeling good.
41:59I'm feeling good.
42:00Let's ramp up the acceleration and see how that feels.
42:06Now, we're starting the centrifuge,
42:08and the cabin of the simulator is pointing towards the center.
42:11So for Martin, it actually just feels like he's accelerating forward.
42:17The acceleration causes him to mistake what is actually happening.
42:23Okay, Martin, what are you feeling now?
42:25Pitched up.
42:27And what do you think that the aircraft is doing now?
42:29We're climbing now.
42:31If you're accelerating forward, yeah, the little hairs in your inner ear
42:35will actually give a constant signal that is the same as if you're being pitched up.
42:43We're climbing to 4,000 to echo x-ray.
42:45It's the exact illusion that caused Zabayan to believe he was still climbing
42:51when his helicopter was in a steep descent.
42:56So can you now bring the nose back to level?
42:58Yep, sure.
42:59So you can see that he's bringing the nose below the horizon.
43:02For him, this actually feels level.
43:06So should we show him the instruments?
43:09Oh my god, I'm 20 degrees nose down.
43:11Okay, can you recover?
43:15We hope that this helps them to recognize spatial disorientation when it occurs.
43:19Secondly, we also hope to teach them some skills
43:21that help them to manage spatial disorientation if it occurs.
43:25That was it.
43:26It was crazy.
43:28I believe that as a tribute to the victims of this accident,
43:35the industry needs to realize how common and sinister
43:38these effects can be and develop better safety standards.
43:43As a result of NTSB recommendations,
43:46the Federal Aviation Administration is evaluating tools like Desdemona
43:51that can be used to train more pilots how to recognize
43:54and cope with the effects of disorientation.
43:57The last thing NTSB wants to do is go back
44:00and investigate this kind of accident all over again.
44:04And through the death of this person and people on board,
44:08hopefully this will be the one to help improve safety.
44:12Time will tell.