Bryant’s pilot thought copter was rising when it was falling

Bloomberg

The pilot of a helicopter carrying retired basketball star Kobe Bryant may have become disoriented in clouds as the craft abruptly turned and dove to the ground near Los Angeles earlier this year, killing all aboard, investigators said.
A preliminary analysis of the final moments of the flight released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found the veteran pilot may have “misperceived” whether the nose was pointed up or down and how the craft had become tilted sharply to the left.
During the final high-speed descent, the pilot told air traffic controllers that they were “climbing to four thousand” feet when they were actually falling, the NTSB said in one of the investigative reports.
The new information, contained in a public docket consisting of more than 1,000 pages of reports, doesn’t conclude what caused the January 26 crash. Bryant, the legendary Los Angeles Lakers guard, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died in the high-velocity impact.
The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter entered thick clouds that obscured hills and its pilot lost control and crashed into the ground, the NTSB has said previously.
Wreckage from the crash site suggested that the helicopter’s engines were operating during the rapid descent.