Kobe Bryant death: Nearby door cams capture noise of fatal helicopter crash
The sound of the helicopter rotor blades can be heard clearly, before ending abruptly with a dull thud
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Your support makes all the difference.Door cams from the neighbourhood adjacent to the site of the crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant have captured audio of the helicopter’s final seconds.
Google Nest devices on the doors of homes in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas recorded the sound of the rotor blades of the twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B.
There is then an audible thud followed by silence.
Bryant, 41, and eight other people, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and two other teenage girls, were killed when the aircraft came down in foggy conditions.
Both door cams have time stamps of 9.45am, the same time that radar contact was lost in the hills above Calabasas.
Both pieces of footage has been provided to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which continues to investigate the cause of the crash.
The NTSB has provided an account of the final moments of the flight, confirming that the helicopter plummeted for a full minute before hitting a hillside and bursting into flames.
Pilot Ara Zobayan requested clearance to increase altitude to climb out of a cloud bank, before making a sharp left descending turn.
The aircraft then fell 2,000 feet at 26 mph before hitting the ground.
NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy described the incident as a “higher-energy-impact crash”.
Bryant and his daughter were on their way to a youth sports academy where her basketball team that he coached were due to compete later that day.
They were joined on the flight by two of Gianna’s teammates, their parents, the assistant coach, and the pilot.
The bodies of all of the victims of the crash were removed and identified by Tuesday.
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