Vanessa Bryant Sues Helicopter Company After Kobe's And Gianna's Deaths
Vanessa Bryant's attorneys filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday against the the company that operated the charter helicopter that crashed on Jan. 26, killing her husband Kobe, their 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people, according to multiple reports.
The complaint against Island Express Holding Corp. and Island Express Helicopters alleges that the pilot, Ara Zobayan, was negligent by flying in cloudy conditions.
“Defendant Island Express Helicopters authorized, directed and/or permitted a flight with full knowledge that the subject helicopter was flying into unsafe weather conditions,” the lawsuit says, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The day of the crash, the Los Angeles Police Department had grounded its helicopters because of the thick fog.
Records from the Federal Aviation Administration revealed that Zobayan was reprimanded in 2015 for lacking the proper permission to fly into airspace with limited visibility, according to the Associated Press.
The lawsuit was filed on the same day as A Celebration of Life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant was held at Staples Center.
Vanessa spoke publicly for the first time since the accident Monday, talking about her deep love for Kobe and Gianna.
"We had hoped to grow old together like the movie [The Notebook]," Vanessa said in front of over 19,000 fans. "We really had an amazing love story. We loved each other with our whole beings. Two perfectly imperfect people making a beautiful family and raising our sweet and amazing girls."
