(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Expert examines the cause of Bryant’s helicopter crash

Basketball legend Kobe Bryant was killed along with eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. As fans around the world mourn, experts are questioning why the private helicopter took off in “scary conditions,” including dense fog.

Robert Ditchey, an airline pilot and aeronautical engineer who lives in Los Angeles, told USA Today the weather was the number-one factor in the crash.

“This was totally avoidable, and on the part of some people I can go as far as to say irresponsible,” Ditchey said. “Here’s one of the most important people in the world who comes to a tragic end like this and you say, ‘Why? What the hell happened?’…They’re in the fog, and you’re down hugging the ground trying to fly up the highway and barely able to see it. He’s down only 100 feet or so above the ground. In that area of the San Fernando Valley, you have mountains on either side of you … and the clouds have obscured them, and you don’t have that much room to maneuver.”

The private helicopter ultimately crashed into the mountains near Casabalas, California, killing everyone on board. Besides Bryant and his daughter, the other victims of the crash included a college basketball coach and two young friends of Gianna Bryant’s. They were all headed for a youth basketball tournament north of L.A.