Kobe Bryant latest in long list of air tragedies involving sports figures
The long list of athletic luminaries who have perished in air crashes goes back decades and their names are a who’s who from the world of professional and college sports.
The brother of the pilot in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and nine other people this past January is claiming the former Lakers star knew the risk of flying, and his surviving family members, including Bryant’s wife Vanessa, are not entitled to damages from the pilot’s estate.
Berge Zobayan, the brother of the late pilot Ara Zobayan, made the claim in a court filing after Vanessa Bryant sued the pilot's estate and the charter company that owned the helicopter, Island Express, in February. In the lawsuit, Bryant’s widow accused Zobayan of negligence and failing “to use ordinary care in piloting the subject aircraft,” the Los Angeles Times and others reported.
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“Any injuries or damages to plaintiffs and/or their decedent were directly caused in full or in part by the negligence or fault of plaintiffs and/or their decedent, including their knowing and voluntary encounter with the risks involved, and that this negligence was a substantial factor in causing their purported damages, for which this answering defendant bears no responsibility,” the court filing read.
Ara Zobayan was the longtime pilot for Kobe Bryant. The lawsuit against the pilot also accused him of “failing to abort the flight, not monitoring and assessing the weather and failing to keep a safe distance between natural obstacles and the 1991 Sikorsky S-76B helicopter” in the Jan. 26 crash.
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Island Express hasn’t filed an answer to Vanessa Bryant’s claims.
John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Payton and Sarah Chester, and Christina Mauser also were killed in the crash in Calabasas, Calif. The Altobelli and Mauser families have also filed lawsuits against Island Express.
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