The helicopter that crashed Sunday morning in Calabasas, killing Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others on board, had the feel of a limousine and boasted a strong safety record, said the basketball star’s former pilot.
Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for Island Express Helicopters, told The Times he flew Bryant from 2014 to 2016. Nine times out of 10, he said, Bryant flew in “Two Echo X-ray” — the Sikorsky S-76B, tail No. N72EX, that went down Sunday morning. When Bryant retired from the NBA in 2016, he flew out of downtown Los Angeles in the same helicopter, wrapped in a gray-and-black paint scheme with his Mamba emblem on the side, Deetz said.
Deetz, who said he spent more than 1,000 hours flying the craft that crashed Sunday, called its condition “fantastic.” Island Express follows a “very good maintenance program,” he said. The helicopter was owned by Island Express, according to Deetz.
Bryant favored the S-76B, Deetz said, which he compared to “a Cadillac, a limousine — it’s limo-esque.” The model is preferred by celebrities and known as comfortable and safe, he said. Its sister model, the S-76A, “is more like a work truck,” he said.
When he flew Bryant, Deetz said, the star was quiet: “It was always, ‘Hey,’ thumbs up, or sometimes nothing at all. He kept to himself. He would get in, get out, and that was it. There was no hugging, no backslapping — he was very professional.”
Deetz recalled one flight, on Father’s Day in 2016: He was spending the day with his son when he got a call — could he fly Bryant to downtown Los Angeles?
Deetz brought along his son, who sat with him up front. Bryant was with his daughters in the back. He spotted Deetz’s son: “He’s a very private guy,” Deetz recalled, “but he noticed my son there and he said, ‘Hey, little man.’ My son and I remembered that today.”
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