Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bean Bryant (August 23, 1978 - January 26, 2020) was a professional basketball player. Known for being a shooting guard, he entered the National Basketball Association (NBA) directly from high school, and played his entire 20-season professional career in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant won five NBA championships, was an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, was named the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and was a two-time NBA Finals MVP winner. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he led the NBA in scoring during two seasons, ranks fourth on the league's all-time regular season scoring, and ranks fourth on the all-time postseason scoring list.

Death
At 9:06 a.m. PDT on January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, with nine people aboard: Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six family friends and the pilot. The helicopter was registered to the Fillmore-based Island Express Holding Corp., according to the California Secretary of Statebusiness database. The group was traveling to a basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks. Due to light rain and fog that morning, the LAPD helicopters and most other air traffic were grounded. The flight tracker shows that the helicopter circled above the L.A. Zoo due to heavy air traffic in the area. The helicopter circled the area six times at an altitude of around 850 feet. At 9:30 a.m., the pilot Ara Zobayan contacted the Burbank Airport's control tower, notifying the tower of the situation and was told he was "flying too low" to be tracked by radar. At that time, the helicopter experienced extreme fog and turned south towards the mountains. At 9:40 a.m. the helicopter climbed rapidly from 1,200 to 2,000 feet (370 to 610 m) flying at 161 knots (298 km/h; 185 mph).

At 9:45 a.m., the helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and caught on fire. Kobe, his daughter, and the other seven occupants were killed. This also started a quarter-acre bush fire. Kobe Bryant was 41 years old. At 9:47 a.m. authorities were called. Personnel from the Los Angeles County Fire Department attended the scene, and paramedics rappelled from a helicopter to the scene to look for survivors. The fire was difficult to extinguish due to the presence of magnesium, but the fire had been extinguished by 10:30 AM. Initial reports indicated that the helicopter crashed in the hills above Calabasas in heavy fog. Witnesses reported hearing a helicopter struggling before crashing.

The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and the FBI have launched investigations into the crash.

On January 28th, Bryant's identity was officially confirmed using fingerprints. The following day the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner stated that the official cause of death for him and the eight others on the helicopter was blunt force trauma.