The girlfriend of the pilot flying Kobe Bryant’s helicopter before it crashed will “never be over” his death, a close friend has said.
Ara Zobayan, the NBA legend’s regular helicopter pilot, was among the nine who died in a fireball crash in the fog-shrouded Los Angeles hills on Sunday.
He left behind his girlfriend of 11 years Tess Davidson and her two sons, to which he was “ever bit an adoptive father,” her close friend Jesse Clark told the Daily Mail.
“Tess will never be over it. That was the impact he had in her life,” Mr Clark said.
“He loved Tess beyond measure. That’s the saddest part.”
He added: “Anybody that Ara touched in their life, I guarantee that they are suffering too.”
Mr Clark said Mr Zobayan was “no different” to Bryant in that he was a “put-a-smile-on-your-face kind of guy.”
“He was every bit of an example of a man I would hope to be at his age,” he added.
“He’s the kind of guy you just wish the world was infected with.”
Mr Zobayan told air traffic controllers he was climbing to avoid a layer of cloud shortly before the crash into a hillside in Calabasas, west of Los Angeles, on Sunday, according to the National Transport Safety Bureau (NTSB).
The “experienced” pilot received special clearance to fly in heavy fog in the minutes before the crash and was flying at 1,400 feet.
Radar data revealed he then climbed to 2,300 feet before beginning a left descending turn. The wreckage of the Sikorsky S-76B was found at 1,085 feet, the NTSB said.
Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna, known as Gigi, also died in the crash alongside John Altobelli, 56, Keri Altobelli, 46, and 13-year-old Alyssa Altobelli.
Christina Mauser, 38, and mother and daughter Sarah Chester, 45, and Payton Chester, 13, were also killed.
