Photo: Instagram / Vanessa Bryant
In January this year, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter carrying nine passengers crashed in the hills outside Los Angeles, California, killing all those on board.
Among them were NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter GiGi, and their longtime pilot, Ara Zobayan. Zobayan had been flying Kobe for years, after he decided commuting daily for work took up too much of the time he could have spent with his kids so he opted to replace the car with a private helicopter.
One month later, Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, and representatives of the other victims’ families, sued the helicopter operator, Island Express, and the pilot’s estate, on the grounds that they had caused the tragedy through gross negligence.
Zobayan was flying in the fog at high speeds, relying on visual reference only, when he slammed in a hill and crashed, the suit argued. Island Express was guilty for having hired him and for failing to prevent him from taking to the skies that day, despite the unfavorable weather conditions which had been announced beforehand.
Earlier this week, both Island Express and Zobayan’s estate filed responses to the lawsuit, and both offer the same argument as grounds for dismissal of the case: the passengers are the only ones to blame for the accident because they knew flying was “inherently dangerous.” TMZ obtained the respective court filings.
“Kobe Bryant and GB [Gigi] had actual knowledge of all of the circumstances, particular dangers, and an appreciation of the risks involved and the magnitude thereof, and proceeded to encounter a known risk, and voluntarily assumed the risk of the accident, injury... thereby barring or reducing [Vanessa's] claim for damages,” the operator says.
Island Express goes as far to claim the crash was an Act of God, which is legal-speak for an event that is beyond human control, an inevitable accident. A pilot flying blind at over 180 mph and under radar tracking (meaning, too low to the ground) is anything but unavoidable or beyond human control.
Both defendants are hoping for a dismissal in court. Island Express, once self-described as “the West Coast’s largest fleet of Sikorsky S-76 passenger aircraft, the most-trusted name in helicopters,” shut down all operations on January 26 and is clearly looking to avoid a massive payout to the families of the victims.
One month later, Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, and representatives of the other victims’ families, sued the helicopter operator, Island Express, and the pilot’s estate, on the grounds that they had caused the tragedy through gross negligence.
Zobayan was flying in the fog at high speeds, relying on visual reference only, when he slammed in a hill and crashed, the suit argued. Island Express was guilty for having hired him and for failing to prevent him from taking to the skies that day, despite the unfavorable weather conditions which had been announced beforehand.
Earlier this week, both Island Express and Zobayan’s estate filed responses to the lawsuit, and both offer the same argument as grounds for dismissal of the case: the passengers are the only ones to blame for the accident because they knew flying was “inherently dangerous.” TMZ obtained the respective court filings.
“Kobe Bryant and GB [Gigi] had actual knowledge of all of the circumstances, particular dangers, and an appreciation of the risks involved and the magnitude thereof, and proceeded to encounter a known risk, and voluntarily assumed the risk of the accident, injury... thereby barring or reducing [Vanessa's] claim for damages,” the operator says.
Island Express goes as far to claim the crash was an Act of God, which is legal-speak for an event that is beyond human control, an inevitable accident. A pilot flying blind at over 180 mph and under radar tracking (meaning, too low to the ground) is anything but unavoidable or beyond human control.
Both defendants are hoping for a dismissal in court. Island Express, once self-described as “the West Coast’s largest fleet of Sikorsky S-76 passenger aircraft, the most-trusted name in helicopters,” shut down all operations on January 26 and is clearly looking to avoid a massive payout to the families of the victims.
Google News