Vanessa Bryant has filed a lawsuit against Island Express Helicopters of Fillmore, California, the company that owned the helicopter that crashed on January 26 in Calabasas, California, leading to the death of her husband Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna, and seven others on board the aircraft.
NBC News reports the 72-page lawsuit accuses Island Express Helicopters of allowing the helicopter to fly in conditions that were not safe. The suit states that pilot Ara George Zobayan had a "duty to use that degree of care that an ordinarily careful and prudent pilot would use under the same or similar circumstances," and that he failed to assess the weather data before taking off.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Joshua Rubenstein previously revealed that the LAPD grounded its helicopters until the afternoon of January 26 due to dense fog, as the department requires two miles of visibility and an 800-foot cloud ceiling for takeoff.
According to the wrongful death suit against Island Express Helicopters, Zobayan was aware of the inclement weather yet failed to abort the flight, thus flying the aircraft into conditions where he was unable to navigate using visual references.
Vanessa Bryant is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the lawsuit, which was filed just before today's memorial service for Kobe and Gigi at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Visit NBC News for more on the story.
