The company maintains the incident was “an unavoidable accident and not proximately caused by any alleged act or omission on the part.'īerge Zobayan, Ara's brother, also responded to Vanessa's wrongful death suit, saying the passengers were responsible for their fatal January 26 helicopter crash. Island Express Helicopters has responded to Vanessa’s claims in the court documents obtained by 'Entertainment Tonight' saying passengers “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 assume the risk of the accident, injury, and damages.' Vanessa claimed claimed the pilot 'had a duty to use that degree of care that an ordinarily careful and prudent pilot would use under the same or similar circumstances.' Vanessa’s lawsuit also alleged that Island Express Helicopters had 'advance knowledge of the unfitness' of Ara due to a previous violation in 2015. 'But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to light the way.'įollowing the crash, Vanessa filed a wrongful death suit against the estate of late pilot Ara Zobayan as well as Island Express Helicopters, the company that owned the helicopter. I hope all of you out there remember him the way you should and give your prayers to his wife and family.'I'm not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it's impossible to imagine life without them,' Vanessa also wrote. “It was wonderful the way he was coaching girls and getting them into the game. “I know many of you are out there and you miss him and still wish to see his brilliance on the court, and what he was doing as a dad,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said of Bryant. Tributes to Bryant by his friends, fans and former teammates poured out on social media on Wednesday. So I wanted to come out of respect and I thought this statue is beautiful.”

“And then it popped up on my phone and we didn’t believe it. We live close and we could hear the helicopter,” she said. Nicole Szuch-Dinets of Woodland Hills was one of the dozens of fans who made the trip to pay their respects. His daughter was 13 at the time of the crash. People would come up and they would leave with some sort of satisfaction.”Ī five-time NBA champion in his 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant’s death at age 41 shocked the world of professional sports and sent his legions of fans into mourning.īryant, who lived in the area for most of his life often used helicopters to beat Los Angeles’s heavy traffic, and on the day of the crash was taking Gianna to play in a basketball game at his academy outside the city. “Today was special because I witnessed a lot of that. “On this day, the second anniversary of the accident, I decided to bring it up from sunrise to sunset and create a bit of a healing process for fans,” he said. Sculptor Dan Medina said he hoped the statue could help Bryant’s many fans. I remember driving, not being able to see more than 80ft ahead of me. By the time the helicopter got to the calibasas valley, the fog conditions were incredibly bad. It also includes an inscription of Bryant’s famous quote: “Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.” Kobe took off from his home in Orange County where visibility conditions were great.

Engraved on the statue’s steel pedestal are the names of all nine victims of the crash, which occurred early in the morning on 26 January 2020, amid foggy weather.

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