Local helicopter pilot eager to learn cause of Kobe Bryant’s crash
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION) The aviation community is anxiously waiting to learn what went wrong that caused the helicopter crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other victims.
Chris Gularte, the Director of Operations at Specialized Helicopters in Watsonville, says while the accident happened in Southern California, the aviation industry is eagerly waiting to learn what went wrong.
"This is something that happened in LA, it didn't happen locally and it affects us,” said Gularte. "We want to get to the bottom of this as bad as anybody to make sure that everybody is as safe as possible in the skies."
As an experienced pilot for an estimated 30 years, he says instinct tells him the tragic crash was possibly caused by three things: weather, a catastrophic mechanical problem or a medical emergency with the pilot.
"We were looking at really bad fog down there. Other pilots were obviously canceling flights because of the fog,” he said. "So then we look at the radar trajectory and what he did during the flight and we start to try to put a little bit of the piece of the puzzle together.
He says the National Transportation Safety Board will most likely take a year to reach a conclusion. On Tuesday, the NTSB released new video showing the mangled wreckage in Calabasas.
Gularte tells KION the helicopter Bryant owned and flew on the day of the crash, a Sikorsky S-76, is an extremely robust and a tremendously safe model. He says it will be key to the investigation to figure out what capabilities the chopper had before the crash.
"I can't remember the last time I've ever heard of an engine failure in that aircraft,” he said. "What were the tools and equipment the pilot had at his disposal to use during that situation?”
Gularte says as tragic as this crash was, it could help pilots prevent a similar accident from happening. Since Bryant’s helicopter did not have a black box, he says investigators will have an extra challenge piecing together the cause.
Gularte, who flies clients over Big Sur and Santa Cruz, says people should not have a fear of boarding a helicopter tour. He still believes it is one of the safest ways to travel when compared to cars or planes.
"You never want to see anything bad happen,” he said. “It is so rare in aviation for things like this to happen."
Gularte also says Bryant’s helicopter was flying below the level at which they would dispatch a flight at the time of the crash.
