herrmann: contact is terminated between air traffic control and the pilot. that effectively means that the pilot is on his own. the helicopter starts descending. the pilot has experienced something that can be very deadly. herrmann: this accident did not need to happen. this accident was entirely preventable. scholes: no doubt about it, this is the most devastating day in nba history. out of an abundance of caution, kobe and vanessa tried to avoid flying in a helicopter together, thinking that if something happened to one of them, the other would be there for their kids. a simple gesture, but one they never imagined would end in tragedy. what happened in the final moments that brought down that doomed flight? next, in part two. i'm jesse l. martin. thanks for watching. goodnight.

♪ it's hard to go from the bottom to the top, but it's even harder, when you're already at the top, >> you, it's, it's hard to go from the bottom to tau it's even harder when you already at the top to go to the bottom and then look back up at that moment again, knowing that you just climb, didn't know his struggles and hard work that you had to go through to look at it and say cloud that thing again hello and welcome i'm jesse you martin kobe bryant. >> life had many acts his on-trade to the nba is a skinny teen his ascension to superstardom. and post-retirement, a new focus on his family and creative projects cobie is relaunch and

entertainment could have been more impactful than his career on the court until a routine flight on a foggy january morning changed his destiny forever this is how it really happened the combination of celebrity aviation mystery in fear is very compelling to people you know what's interesting is you can connect to die directly between what happened to john f. >> kennedy jr. and what happened to kobe bryant kobe bryant will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in the nba for all his success for

his titles and his accolades and his achievements and for the way he played the game and his crazy drive to succeed kobe was smart kobe was passionate kobe was dedicated kobe was driven determined focused unrelenting i think his image changed when he became a father that softened him. >> i think at humbled him and really changed the perception of coby, the superstar during our last conversation, i wondered why coby wasn't at more games and he said, like, i've done that, i played 20 years at this point in my life. >> i want to be with my girls. i want to be with my daughters. he loved being with his kids it

seemed like gz was the most like him of his daughters. >> you could see that there was the shared love of basketball and the shared desire on their parts for her to be graded i was your teacher from the time she was in kindergarten. and she just had this fire inside of her. she wanted to be good and as she was, she was really growing as a basketball player kobe was always reinventing himself. are pushing for more. he's a film producer. he's famously a girl dad and it isn't just his own girls. he's pushing for the idea of making the landscape better for women in sports he's finding new purposes for his life. >> he was just getting started in his post mba career with overseeing a storytelling company. overseen a sports training facility at the mob of sports academy, playing a heavy role in coaching kobe started these sports academy for diana.

it was all for deana because he saw that there was nothing out there for girls i was working with coby doing a lot of the music for his children's podcast called the punic. and through that relationship, coby called me and said christina is amazing. she was just really really a good basketball coach and it was blown away by her ability and so he made her an offer originally, it was three days a week coaching at night and add it being like a year after that, about six, seven days a week and basketball tournaments every weekend it's january 26, 2020. nano 6:00 a.m. kobe bryant, his daughter and seven others are heading toward kim maria for basketball tournament kobe bryant was a frequent helicopter user, a

frequent user of this particular charter company. and he much preferred this particular pilot our as bian, this pilot had 8,200 hours of experience, which is a high level of experience for flying helicopters or any aircraft beside the pilot, coby and is 13 year-old daughter, gianna. >> there were also her teammates there was alyssa alter, belly, paton, chester, paton, moms, sara, and the ultimately parents, john and carrie were onboard as well and christina mows her. she was onboard christina dedicated as a coach. >> she just had an ability to kind of intuitively be there for kids carrying john loved christina and christina and carrie, we're very close. christina and sarah were very close. >> it was like a family as close as a team could be i had to show the night before i got

home around midnight and we say goodnight. >> christina was waiting for me and then she said i have to be out the door by seven. i said, okay so she says so if i don't see you all, i'll be back by noon. i remember her kissing me, saying i love you and i was so tired, i didn't wake up. >> she walked out the door and i heard the door shut. i was going to get up and say, hey, goodbye, and i just didn't the weather that morning was not ideal for herrmann: the pilot filled out his safety analysis two hours before he departed. petitt: the pilot should always assess the flight risks before taking off. the weather can change in 10 minutes, and they should have checked it prior to departure. i was actually in calabasas. i have never seen fog like that.

reporter: the helicopter carrying kobe and his daughter was headed to mamba sports academy in thousand oaks, california, for a basketball game. markazi: as much as you felt a connection with kobe, you really did feel that connection with gianna. there had begun to be these highlight reels on social media showing gianna playing the game.

one of the things that really struck me is that kobe said, "genetics are a real thing, man." rao: do you think you were born to do this? no question, no question. [ laughs ] i mean, this is -- this is in my blood. i mean, my father played, my uncle played, my grandparents played, my grandma played. so this is like, you know... this is what we do. treatman: i was very lucky to meet kobe bryant while i was hanging out with his father, joe bryant. i couldn't believe how fundamentally sound he was, this 14-year-old kid, and i go, "okay, joe, so, how good is kobe?" he said, "jeremy, he's gonna be so much better than me, it's not even funny." joe bryant played eight years in the nba, could do virtually anything on the basketball court. lazenby: kobe's mother, pam, was a fire-brand, and when she had this prized son with her two daughters, instinctively just locked in to advance the agenda of kobe.

when kobe thinks of gigi playing, he smiled, and he talked about her, the way she bites her jersey or the way that she moves around the court, the way she thinks about the game. when is kobe, then, happiest away from the basketball floor? oh, that's easy -- when i'm with my girls. okay. when i'm with my girls. i'm at my happiest when i'm with them. riddell: kobe bryant didn't do anything by halves, did he? the three-peat was just extraordinary. 2000, 2001, 2002. he didn't win anything in 2003, but, well, maybe he did because that was when his first daughter, natalia, was born. kobe was very proud of natalia. and then next, kobe and vanessa had gianna. riddell: then there was a 10-year gap, until 2016. that's when bianca came. and then a fourth daughter in 2019, capri.

mauser: any father with a daughter would tell you that those little girls just tear down all your macho and masculinity, and they were his world. i saw him as a parent. i saw him as a loving father and husband. and that's not something you can hide. i only saw kobe and vanessa when they were either at the arena or visiting the practice site. i could see that it was a young couple in love, and they were enamored with each other. alexander: kobe was their protector. he was their protector. and he loved them so much. costas: he was very serious when he said, "i'm a girl dad." and it wasn't just a matter of image. he was interested in enhancing opportunities for girls and young women to play basketball and to be involved in other sports. moshtaghian: kobe was really invested in the community and really wanted to impact

as many kids and children as he could. one of the things kobe did was bring underprivileged kids into basketball camps. pincus: he had had a camp in santa barbara where he was coaching, you know, a bunch of kids. and he gave a lot of love to that camp. alexander: it's called kobe basketball academy, and it was held week of fourth of july in santa barbara university. he was really big on not breaking promises and disappointing kids. like, that was one of the great things. and so he was there every second. guthrie: he knew that basketball had been his life and had transformed his life, and i think he genuinely wanted to give that back to kids who may not have had the opportunities that he had. and maybe people will say, "oh, my gosh, he's ruthless on the court." but really, off the court, he was just one of the nicest guys. and i just saw his philanthropic side. that's when mamba academy started.

the mamba sports academy was a facility based in thousand oaks, california. it was a space for elite athletes to train. it also included youth sports. it also became a hub for aau programs to play games. and that's where gianna's aau basketball team primarily played. gianna's passion for the game brought kobe back to the game that he loved. ♪ lazenby: kobe bryant became the standard for competitive spirit in the nba. kobe had become that person in the minds of a generation of competitors. smith: people loved him because he won, and because he played with a passion few have ever seen.

then he became a villain when he was arrested. cooper: eagle county, colorado's district attorney charges nba all star kobe bryant with felony sexual assault. and suddenly, his life went from the kid, where he gave everything to the game, to this guy in the police photos. tuchman: he's accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman on june 30th in a hotel here in eagle county, colorado. the woman is an employee of the hotel. it was a low moment, no matter which side of the story you accept or anything in between. it's a low moment in kobe's life and career. kobe ended up settling with his accuser. a personal attorney for the accuser tells us that the case -- the criminal case -- will be dropped. smith: and then it was over, and it was done. and it was stunning that it was done because it had gone on for so long.

lazenby: kobe bryant always had displayed this tremendous will that allowed him to struggle and fight his way out of his own destruction. ♪ guthrie: kobe bryant, in describing the period of time in his life around the sexual assault case, described it as difficult, described it as dark, but, i think, felt he had gotten past it. he had gotten past it in his marriage with his wife, vanessa. sielski: kobe was on a bit of a rehabilitation tour when it came to his image after those charges, and he was fortunate in that there is a perception in our society. people want to see athletes and famous figures travel roads of redemption. and people in our country love that kind of story. i think that had him redouble his efforts on the court.

it made him go even harder. he would reel off like 40-, 50-point games in a row. and it didn't even look like he was breaking a sweat. markazi: the 2007-2008 season was the year everything came together for kobe, and he was finally recognized as the most valuable player in the league. i don't think i ever saw kobe have any weak moment in his joy for the game itself. there was a love for the game that was ridiculous. and i don't think those around him ever saw anything but that same unbridled joy for his four children. ♪ o'brien: from john wayne airport to santa ana airport

to camarillo airport is about 75 miles. in los angeles traffic that morning, two hours-plus driving. 20 to 30 minutes in a helicopter. the exact mission with the exact same people was flown the day before, under much better weather circumstances. petitt: the pilot and one of the operations managers were standing outside, discussing the weather before they flew. and so they knew there was a problem. however, the habit of we've done it before, we can do it again kind of leads pilots to... to push, "it's okay. i just did it yesterday. today won't be a problem either." miles: and so, on this morning with this low marine layer of fog and cloud, the pilot had to choose an alternate way to get there. so, instead of taking the more direct route, he went up toward the i-5, toward burbank airport.

following the highway is allowed. helicopters, pilots do it. it's a visual reference that orientates you to your location. but the fog was coming in. the visibility is worse than we thought. o'brien: so, it's 9:20 a.m., and the pilot, ara zobayan, approaches the burbank airspace, and he requests to fly through it. and in order to do that, he needs to get special vfr clearance. special visual flight rules -- they're special requests to travel across that airspace. schiavo: for example, if your weather has taken a turn that you didn't expect, it's just a simple request for an exception. o'brien: it's 9:32 a.m. now, and the pilot's been holding for 11 minutes in glendale.

petitt: the 11-minute hold -- it had to do with the weather conditions. he's holding, he's not getting his clearance to go through. the longer he holds, it's going to be getting worse. he finally gets cleared into the burbank airspace under special vfr rules. he should have taken that time and thought, "this might not be a good idea. let's go back."

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bryant: because people view it as being a gift, they put extra and extra burden on you. you know, you have an added responsibility to be able to do that every single night. at the same time, because they're putting that burden on you, you work extra hard so that when you go out there and play and it looks good, people can take it as being a gift, you know, and they can sit back and enjoy the show. sielski: in the last few years of his nba career, kobe definitely softened. he softened to people around the nba. he softened to people who knew him off the court. and he became a softer figure regarding his family. we started learning about how he was working with gianna, working with her in the gym and showing her his incredible moves. and who knows what she would've become. i mean, she could've been amazing. ♪

o'brien: the pilot asks the controller for flight following service as he transits through burbank. flight following is best thought of in layman's terms of asking air traffic control to keep an eye on you. they're monitoring your progress, and they can actually see you on the radar. schiavo: it's not unusual for a pilot to ask air traffic control for special vfr or for flight following. but when you put them all together, of course, in hindsight, a lot of factors are now starting to look very worrisome. did the pilot know he was in trouble when he requested flight following? yes, probably. you request flight following when you're feeling unsure of yourself. ♪ o'brien: at 9:39 a.m., the pilot is making the turn toward the 101 and ultimately camarillo. the controller advises him that he is headed in a direction

that is outside of the reach of radar and also has spotty radio communication. herrmann: contact is terminated between air traffic control and the pilot. that effectively means that the pilot is on his own as he's traveling through this area. the pilot's normally looking outside, flying by visual references, seeing the ground, following the freeway, looking at the mountains. it's rising terrain. and he gets closer and closer to the clouds. he was moving very quickly, about 160 miles an hour. he was now worried. "i can't see the ground anymore. i'm in clouds. i just better get altitude to save me." now, of course, a pilot can choose to fly above the clouds, and that's perfectly legal if you're within the allowed altitudes. but you can't get to that airspace by going through the clouds. flying into clouds is extremely dangerous. not only because you could hit something you can't see,

another plane or a mountain, but because it is prime condition for experiencing spatial disorientation. o'brien: if you are flying through clouds, looking out the window is like looking into frosted glass. you have no sense of where the horizon is or where you are in space. and if you try to rely on that, using your eyes out the window, you're left with, basically, your inner ear. and your inner ear will fool you in that situation. schiavo: this situation on the kobe bryant helicopter is very similar to the situation on the jfk jr. plane. they're both in the clouds, they can't see the horizon, and they experience this spatial disorientation. in other words, you're turning and descending when you think you're going straight and level and climbing. it's not an uncommon situation.

herrmann: at 9:45, the pilot tells air traffic control that he's gonna go up and over the clouds up to 4,000 feet. air traffic control asks him to ident. this would require the pilot to look down, turn his head, and push a button so that he can identify his helicopter to air traffic control. schiavo: and this is very crucial because that took his attention off of other instruments. that movement right there of moving your head to make the necessary adjustment. o'brien: and he is quickly in a situation where he has no visual reference to the outside world. with a downward acceleration, you can easily feel like you're climbing. the pilot would have realized something was terribly wrong when he was in the clouds. he was already headed into an operation

that was completely illegal. and he was climbing through clouds. elam: they said on radar, they could tell that he only made it to about 2,300 feet, and then the helicopter started to descend and made a sharp left. herrmann: he was experiencing spatial disorientation. you believe that you are climbing, but, in fact, you are rapidly descending. at this moment, he lost control of the aircraft. when they broke through the clouds, they would have been able to see that they were in trouble.

welcome back to "how it really happened." what would life post-basketball look like for kobe? his steely drive on the court gave way to a childlike curiosity of writing and film production that would lead to a second act no one expected. garciduenas: for any player in the nba, you can see the course of time take its toll over those years, and the physical demand on an nba player is incredible. pincus: one of the things about kobe -- he wasn't injury-prone, but he suffered his share of injuries. ultimately, in 2013, he suffered an injury he couldn't play through. smith: he snapped his achilles, and that's when you know that it's time to go.

pincus: i remember going into the locker room for post-game. and he came out on crutches. his eyes were, like, red from crying. and so i asked him, "is this the last time that we'll see kobe bryant play basketball?" which was a tough question to ask. costas: all of us, no matter what we do, hope that the last note will, in some way, be fitting. that will in some way embody the best of what -- whatever it is our career has been about. and kobe cared enough about that, evidently, to put himself through some of the most grueling rehab, just to be able to have the kind of final act that leaves you feeling satisfied. the achilles injury, i think, reawakened in him this drive and this perfectionism and this conviction in himself that he could do this. ♪

sielski: and then, of course, he goes out and scores 60 points -- the most in nba history for any player in a final game. to end with 60, pretty good. pretty good. mumford: when i visited kobe in 2015, and we talked about his plans after basketball, he seemed like he was at peace with retiring, and he had the next phase of his life all set up. costas: i didn't think there was anything in kobe's personality or his personal ethos that would've allowed him to have a retirement -- a long retirement. markazi: kobe talked about having a production company and tell stories, children's books, movies. you're thinking, "okay, that's nice." but when i read "dear basketball,"

it really hit home. sielski: the poem "dear basketball" really combined two of kobe's passions and loves. one, of course, was basketball. he spoke, throughout his life, about how he loved all the intricate details, the feeling he got of playing the game. and of course, he loved writing, as well. bryant: you gave a 6-year-old boy his laker dream, and i will always love you for it." ♪ elam: it's not rare to see people from other worlds showing up on the oscars red carpet. but what is different is when you see someone so well-known and acknowledged and decorated from sports coming down the red carpet, and he walked away a winner. medina: i spoke with kobe bryant nine days before his tragic passing. he was sitting in front of the academy award

that he got for "dear basketball," and i asked, "hey, turn around. where would you rank that trophy among all your other trophies that you got in your nba career?" and he said that, "the oscar is the most meaningful award." and the thing that's very intriguing and tragic is that kobe felt like he was just getting started. ♪ ♪ schiavo: the pilot had told air traffic control that he was climbing to 4,000 feet. but eight seconds later, the pilot starts descending and starts turning left. the moment where the pilot really lost control of that helicopter, where that left turn became a very steep bank and ultimately a rapid descent, his altitude was about 2,370 feet.

at that time, the tops of the clouds -- in other words, the sunshine -- was less than 30 feet away. and if he had just gotten a little bit higher, he would have realized that he was at a strange attitude, he would have leveled out that helicopter, and we would not be having this conversation. james: once the helicopter started descending, there was one witness that saw the helicopter for one to two seconds through the clouds. riddell: an eyewitness said that they descended from the fog or from a cloud, and within just a matter of a couple of seconds, they hit the side of the mountain. schiavo: the helicopter was still traveling upright, but traveling very quickly... ♪ ...and then hit the side of the mountain and burst into flames.

mauser: christina didn't like to fly. she did not like flying on a helicopter. and so she was always very good about letting me know where she was and that she had landed. they were en route, and i didn't see a text. all these questions just go through your mind in a split second. and then you're in shock. at 9:47 is the first 911 call. witness: a helicopter crashed into a mountain. we heard it, and now i'm looking at the plane. shortly before 10:00, at 9:47 a.m., the los angeles county fire department received a 911 call of a potential helicopter down and a brush fire. witness: here this plane, it was in the clouds. we couldn't see it and then we just heard a boom and a dead sound, and then i could see the flames. elam: it was a wide swath of land that had this entire impact of where the helicopter

basically disintegrated into the mountainside. o'brien: the fire was so hot, it melted aluminum pieces of the wreckage. a helicopter crash like this, at this rate of speed, it was not a survivable crash. when you think about what happened on that helicopter, it is good to know that no one there really knew what was happening. it all happened so quickly that no one really suffered in that moment. it was instantaneous. they were on top of the world, and then it was over.

cooper: tonight, the national transportation safety board says the helicopter that crashed into the side of a mountain, killing nine people, including kobe bryant, missed clearing that mountain by just 20-30 feet. riddell: i was in our newsroom that day. and then we started hearing news about this helicopter crash. and the phrase i remember hearing most that day was, "not kobe, not kobe." ♪ so, my job was to then go on air and break the news to

to our audience on cnn. a lot of us in this business are supposed to be able to produce words very easily. i think, for a lot of people today, it's going to be very, very difficult to find the words to describe how people feel about what we now know has transpired today. i got a text on my phone during the game that said that kobe died in a helicopter accident with other people. and i thought it was a bad joke. i was sitting there thinking about it, and my first thought was, "i hope his family's not with him." [ siren wailing ] riddell: then there was this kind of second groan in the newsroom when we learned that gianna might have been among the victims, as well, and that was just... i mean, it was just doubly tragic. shock and sadness spreading around the world as details now emerge about the death today of nba superstar kobe bryant.

mauser: i got a call from a friend of mine and said, "kobe's passed away in a helicopter crash." and i just -- that's when i knew. i knew i lost my wife. the outpouring of grief was just nothing like i've seen before. smith: i got to staples center shortly after the news broke, and there already were candles. people were crying, and it was stunning. it was so sad. he was loved. he was absolutely loved when he died. reporter: what did he mean to southern california? everything. that's why there's so many people here. egan: it was just -- and it still is. it's just impossible to believe. part of me thinks that he's gonna come walking through the door one day and say, you know, "come on, coach, i'm not gonna let a helicopter mess me up."

to the rest of the world, he's the icon, you know, the mamba, the laker, the superstar. and to us, you know, he's our friend, he's our guy. petitt: the finding of the ntsb report for this accident was pilot error. there are a number of points along the way that this accident could have ended completely differently. it was a pilot under visual flight rules flying into instrument flight rules -- that is to say a cloud -- and losing spacial orientation and thus control of the craft. petitt: the pilot was instrument-rated. he had a license. however, the company was not certified to fly in instrument conditions. they were only certified to fly in visual conditions. the company not having certification to fly ifr superseded the pilots having certification. i've worked so many cases

concerning pilot spatial disorientation, and it happens more than people would like to think. it happens a lot. given the conditions that we know now existed, this pilot should have never taken off. o'brien: this crash reminded me a lot of the crash that involved john f. kennedy jr in 1999. in that case, he was piloting his own aircraft, ended up in a situation where he found himself in instrument conditions, unable to see the horizon, and became confused, leading to a rapid descent and a crash into the water. a young and inexperienced pilot as opposed to a seasoned veteran, but you have to be so vigilant and you have to understand your limitations. aviation is extremely unforgiving of even the slightest lapse. herrmann: it was a continuation error of bad decision after bad decision

after bad decision. vanessa bryant and the other family members filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the pilot and the helicopter companies for negligence and reckless behavior. schiavo: after the crash, photos were taken at the crash site by first responders. police, fire, others. and it was alleged that some of those first responders, or at least one of those first responders, showed it to other people who had no business seeing those photos. and vanessa bryant sued because of this. schiavo: what ensued were lawsuits that lasted longer than the air-crash lawsuits about what should be allowed to be photographed at a crash scene, and who should have access to them, and what should happen to people that show those pictures to other people without authority.

and one of the things that she said in her deposition was that for the rest of her life, she'll either live in fear that somebody is going to post pictures of her dead husband and child on the internet, or it will actually happen.

the date has been set for kobe bryant's memorial service. the life of the los angeles lakers star will be celebrated

on february the 24th, 24 being one of the numbers he wore during his 20-year nba career. kobe was known as a fierce competitor on the basketball court. guthrie: kobe's memorial at the staples center was cathartic for the fans and for his family, >> hey, career can we was known as a fierce competitor on the basketball court brick for the fans and for his family i think vanessa's eulogy was especially sad and also incredible that she could get up there and do that be both rest in peace and have fun and heaven until we meet again one day we love you both and miss you forever and always at that memorial service to see michael jordan weep openly week and speak so fondly of cobie. in effect as his little brother

as as someone to whom he was connected in life as a parent coby left nothing in the tank he left it all on the floor. i've never seen so many manchus were willing to share their feelings. and just cry over something the whole thing was really, really sad and everybody was shaken when they loved this is a case of a top pilot and experienced, seasoned professional safe pilot, making a split second decision that was just 100% wrong. and you concede any number of opportunities along the way for a safe conclusion to this. maybe they wouldn't have made it to that basketball tournament. but a safe and that flight that's split-second decision cost everybody their

lives that day only thing that got people start talking about copi was covid hit in march i mean, it took covid took a pandemic to get people really shot morning recovery. >> bryant and start thinking about their own lives kobe's legacy, most simply is as one of the very greatest players in the history of the nba but what separates him from others is his unrelenting work, ethic and how he always wanted to be the best nobody wanted to win. more than kobe bryant there's one person who inspired me to want to be a better person to follow your dreams, to be yourself it was coby in, it didn't matter what he did it was whether he was a player are talking about stories and making films. >> he never wanted to do

anything halfway and beyond that, the fact that this giant of the nba became an advocate for women in basketball and women in sports. and that's part of his legacy to i think when we talk about coby and a legacy, you have to take the man in full you have to understand the drive that he displayed and both the heights that it allowed him to reach and what it took for him to rise out of those debts to bring himself back to somebody who was as respected as loved this he was everybody considered kobe to have the most idyllic life and towards the end, i think he did. i think he had everything he wanted and everything he had dreamed of and i think kobe was ready to enter that new phase of his life except for that helicopter ride on a cloudy gray morning would coby have

gone on to do great, magnificent things? would he have run a major film company? what we have is kobe bryant example. he had planned for his life beyond the basketball court i wouldn't bet against it a year and three months after his untimely death, kobe bryant was inducted into the basketball hall of fame the nba, having made it's mandatory three-year waiting period in 2022, the wnba created the cobie and gigi bryant wnba advocacy award. >> this award honors people who have made significant contributions to the advancement of girls and women's basketball a modest to fitting tribute to a humble girl dad his star pupil. >> and the other lives caught far too short i'm just yell martin thank you for watching. goodnight