Reflections on the Kobe Bryant Tragedy

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There are plenty of examples of flights that ended up in tragedy where the customer could have influenced the outcome. Perhaps the most prominent is the Kobe Bryant crash in Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26, 2020. The pilot of the helicopter carrying Bryant, his daughter, and six other passengers, lost control while trying to maneuver around poor weather, and everyone was killed in the ensuing high-speed dive into the ground.

This accident raises the question of how external pressure affected the pilot’s decision-making. Did the pilot feel a strong compulsion, because of Bryant’s celebrity status and wealth, to complete the mission and fly all the way to the desired destination despite the weather obstacles? We will never know, but this kind of external pressure may have been a factor, and it could be a factor in some of your trips.

Pilots are goal-oriented and necessarily focused on achieving the mission and the desired outcome: a safe flight to the destination. But pilots also can succumb to external pressure, and you can help mitigate the risk of this happening.

As the customer and ultimate decision-maker on where the flight is going, you do have influence, and you shouldn’t be embarrassed to bring up any safety concerns before the flight. The Kobe Bryant case provides a useful example, but keep in mind that we do not know what transpired between the pilot, who had flown Bryant many times before, and Bryant.

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The weather that day was cloudy at the destination, Camarillo Airport, but the cloud ceiling and visibility were not poor enough to prevent a helicopter from landing there under visual flight rules (VFR). The charter operator wasn’t able to operate the flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) because IFR flights weren’t approved in that helicopter.

Unfortunately, the weather conditions recorded at airports along the route, including Burbank and Van Nuys, didn’t capture the exact conditions around rising terrain between Van Nuys and Camarillo. However, a marine layer condition was causing widespread low visibilities and cloud ceilings in the area.

It is difficult, in hindsight, to assess whether the existing and forecast weather along the route would make it impossible to fly VFR to Camarillo, and IFR wasn’t an option.

In fact, at a safety meeting held by the helicopter operator on May 24, 2019, having an alternative was emphasized to the participants, according to the National Transportation Safety Board final report on the accident: “If you must divert, then do it. Land [the helicopter and] call a taxi for the passengers. If the pilot has to get a hotel room, then get [the] room.”

There was an alternative in this case, which this example highlights: the pilot and client could have discussed any potential issues due to the marginal weather conditions and agreed on suitable alternatives. This is a classic method of defusing external pressure, and pilots are encouraged to use techniques such as this.

The client, who is paying for the flight, could simply raise the question: What do we do if the weather doesn’t allow us to make it to the destination? The pilot might respond, “The weather looks flyable at least until Van Nuys Airport but is questionable in the hills after that. So how about we have a Plan B where we can land in Van Nuys, we’ll have a car service waiting for you there, and you’ll still arrive close to the original schedule. Either way, we’ll get you there safely.”

Jessie Naor, president of Private Aviation Safety Alliance, which has developed a database of charter operators and charter safety information, explained, “We assume pilots are going to be professional and not take any risks. We’re human, and ‘eager to please’ takes over. Especially with celebrities—we’ve got this big shot in the back—it makes you behave in ways you don’t normally.”

Naor recommends that charter clients do some due diligence when selecting an operator, and some of this can be done on the Private Aviation Safety Alliance website. “FAA certification is bare minimum,” she said. “We like to see higher levels of [industry audits such as] Argus, Wyvern, and IS-BAO. That’s not going to guarantee safety. Ask about their safety programs and personnel.”

She pointed out that in the U.S., there is a difference between a simple and complex charter operator. Simple operators can have a single person taking on multiple roles, such as the chief pilot also being the director of operations, while complex operations have individuals in each role. This doesn’t necessarily mean the simple operator is unsafe, she explained.

“The biggest problem is operational control,” Naor said. Operational control is an FAA term that specifies which parties are accountable for safety and compliance with regulatory requirements. Naor strongly believes that leaving operational control to the pilot or flight crew misplaces the burden of responsibility. Of course, pilots are responsible for safe operation, but the decision on whether or not to depart when there are weather or other factors that might add unacceptable risk should be part of the company’s operational control responsibility.

“No pilot or crew should be 100% in control of whether they should take off or not,” she said. “It should be someone in management or dispatch. It has to have a second set of eyes on it. Flight crew needs backup to make a difficult choice, but we leave it on the crew and don’t give them the psychological safety to help make the decision.” This is a complex issue for charter passengers to understand, she stated.

In addition to asking about certification and industry audits, charter clients should ask the operator about its operational process and who is responsible for approving and monitoring each flight. Charter companies aren’t required to have a formally trained and certified dispatcher (while airlines are required to), but if there is some change that affects the flight, the change needs to go through the operational control process. A dispatcher can help with this.

A person designated to handle operational control duties, whether it’s the chief pilot or director of operations or their designee, she explained, “has to show they have reviewed every step of the flight planning. That’s what operational control means.”

A robust operational control process, no matter the size of the charter operator, builds a wall of trust for all participants, including the client, the pilots, and the charter operator’s employees. This helps ameliorate differences in risk profiles among pilots, where some might be willing to go too far to people-please, while others are overly cautious.

“As a charter company, we have to build trust that this is our envelope, this is where we’ll always live, and that’s clear,” Naor said. “If things happen, if a pilot is not comfortable landing at a certain airport, we respect that as a company. We have training and safety programs, but there is still a human element. That’s 50% of safety, building that culture and how to respect people’s choices.

“I love the idea of passengers talking to pilots more; pilots love to share,” she concluded. “As a passenger, be curious, ask as many questions as you want to. More curiosity leads to more safety in the long term.”