CBS News has obtained the names of all 9 passengers of the doomed helicopter flight that took the life of 41-year-old NBA legend Kobe Bryant, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
The helicopter went down in Calabasas, California, approximately 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, after the chopper was fighting through severe fog in a treacherous mountain terrain that had already grounded many helicopters in the region.
The helicopter left John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 9:06 am local, and the first 911 call was reported at 9:47 am.
The helicopter was cleared to fly, despite poor conditions that had grounded all law enforcement choppers that morning.
The group was flying to a nearby youth basketball tournament that Bryant was going to be coaching for daughter Gianna, and the other children on board were also players on the team.
Alongside Bryant and his daughter Gianna were:
John and Keri Altobelli with daughter Alyssa Altobelli
Sarah Chester with daughter Peyton Chester
Christina Mauser, who was a youth basketball coach where Bryant’s daughter attended high school
Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the helicopter.
The helicopter was a Sikorsky S-76 that was built in 1991 and the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the vague sequence of events that saw the chopper circle at a low altitude for a brief period, before starting a rapid incline, that ended with the ill-fated freefall.