Kobe Bryant's death shocked the world, leaving fans confused and crushed.
Have we learned anything new about the circumstances since that tragic day?
Here's what we know.
When people think of the legendary basketball player, Kobe Bryant, they think of an incredible
competitor on the basketball court who gave his all in every game.
There was no such thing as a game being out of reach for his team.
He was known for being able to will the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he played his entire
career, to heart-stopping, come-from-behind wins, and his single-minded competitiveness
earned him the nickname, "Black Mamba."
He won five NBA titles with the Lakers.
"We're going to get another one next year, again!
Back to back to back!"
He retired in 2016, and it looked like he was content to spend time with his wife Vanessa
and their four children.
For all the other things that could be said about a complicated man, there has never been
any doubt that Bryant loved his family very much.
Then, life, as it often does, changed in an unexpected way.
When Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020,
it became one of those "Where were you when you heard" moments.
According to USA Today, Bryant, who was 41, was taking Gianna, 13, to her youth basketball
game at his Mamba Sports Academy.
Like her father, Gianna had been a standout player.
The sudden loss of the basketball icon and his young teen daughter was hard for many
to process.
Then the public had to anxiously wait for the autopsy results.
According to The Sporting News, the salient point that was highlighted in the coroner's
report offers some small comfort: Everyone on the helicopter most likely died instantly
upon impact.
There were disturbing things about what happened to them post-impact, but that was to be expected
in a crash that saw the vehicle traveling at 184 mph when it hit the ground, according
to AP News.
Officially, per the coroner's office, all nine aboard died of blunt force trauma.
There were severe burns that delayed identification, but those mercifully occurred after those
passengers had died.
Kobe's tattoos were instrumental in making that official identification.
The pilot, Ara Zobayan, was experienced.
Nevertheless, he made a grievous error in judgment in foggy conditions, and the result
was fatal for all involved.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that the probable cause was:
"[...] the pilot's decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrumental
meteorological conditions, which resulted in the pilot's spatial disorientation and
loss of control."
They said there was nothing that went wrong with the helicopter itself.
There were no illegal drugs found in the pilot’s system.
The event is simply a cruel reminder of how drastic an impact small choices can have for
any of us.
Kobe Bryant's widow, Vanessa, settled a lawsuit with the pilot’s estate and the company
that owned the helicopter in June 2021, according to AP News.
She also filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County over the decision by some officials
present at the crash site to take photos of the victims and later leak them online.
That lawsuit is still pending as of the making of this video.
Kobe Bryant was far from the only athlete to tragically die in a helicopter or plane
crash.
The list, which spans decades, includes boxing legend Rocky Marciano, baseball Hall of Famers
Roberto Clemente and Roy Halladay, New York Yankee captain Thurman Munson and pitcher
Cory Lidle, and golfer Payne Stewart.
All of them joined a group of people whose lives were cut way too short.
While air travel is generally safe in the hands of experienced people, there is always
the risk that something could happen, whether with the weather or machine malfunction and,
unfortunately, Bryant and his daughter were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Constant travel is both a perk and a pain to professional athletes.
And though Bryant had retired, he nevertheless had the means to make a cross-county trip
that would have otherwise been arduous in Los Angeles' notoriously bad traffic a little
easier on himself, his daughter, and their guests.
In the days following the crash, some offered pushback on the star's decision to fly that
day, but the reality is that Bryant could simply afford to do it.
His autopsy revealed nothing more in his system than Ritalin, a common medication typically
prescribed for ADHD, according to ABC News.
His judgment wasn't clouded.
For an athlete of his stature, taking a short flight that day was a logical decision — even
if we can never make sense of the tragedy.
Instead, we mourn the lives cut short — Kobe's, Gianna's, and those of the seven others who
perished alongside them — and wonder what they would have been able to accomplish going
forward.
No autopsy report can change that.