911 emergency dispatch calls have been released following the death of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and 8 others. The crash occurred January 26th in Calabasas as the passengers were on their way to Camarillo Airport in Ventura County to visit Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy.
Although weather condition are a factor which caused the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board is looking into other possible reasons.
Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatch center received a flurry of calls immediately following the crash with many expressing concern for visibility.
"It went over my head. It's thick in clouds. And then I heard a pop and it immediately stopped," one man said. "If this guys doesn't have night vision, I mean, he was, he's completely IFR."
"I'm walking in the trail I could hear the plane, I think it was, in the clouds, but couldn't see it. Then we just heard a 'boom' and a dead sound and then I could see the flames," another caller can be heard saying.
The company that owns the helicopter responsible for killing Bryant, his teenager daughter and 7 other passengers was not "licensed to fly choppers by cockpit instruments when visibility was bad," NBC reports.
“Speaking generally, a pilot has to observe any limitations on the company he or she works for, regardless of the pilot’s personal ratings,” the Federal Aviation Administration released in a statement. “If a company is not authorized to conduct flights in bad-weather conditions, the pilot while flying for that company can only conduct flights in visual conditions.”