Kobe Bryant’s helicopter did not have a black box, and nor was it required to have one, crash officials have revealed, as they started to recover they start to retrieve bodies from the wreckage.
As more than 20 members of the national transportation board (NTSB) scoured the California hillside where the chopper came down on Sunday morning in bad weather, officials asked for the public to help to provide photographs of the conditions.
NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Homendy said the pilot of the chopper told air traffic controllers in his last radio message that he was climbing to avoid a cloud layer.
The pilot had asked for and received special clearance to fly in heavy fog just minutes before the crash and was flying at 1400 feet (427 metres) when he went south and then west, she said.
The pilot then asked for air traffic controllers to provide “flight following” aide but was told the craft was too low, she said.
Ms Homendy said the debris field covered “about 500 to 600 feet”.
Asked if anyone could have survived, she said: “It was a pretty devastating accident scene.”
Coroner’s officials worked to recover victims’ remains from the hillside outside Los Angeles where the helicopter crashed, and reports said the remains of three of the nine people killed have been removed. Aviation experts say may have been caused by the pilot becoming disoriented in the fog.
Asked if the chopper had a black box, Ms Homendy said it did not, and nor was it required to carry one.
The Sikorsky S-76 went down Sunday morning, killing the retired athlete along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and everyone else aboard and scattering debris over an area the size of a football field.
While asking the public to help by sending images of the weather, she added: “We are not just looking at weather here, though. We look at the man, the machine and the environment.”
Additional reporting by agencies
