Kobe Bryant Crash Victims’ Families File Lawsuits Against Helicopter Company

Published on April 21, 2020.

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The families of four victims who passed away in the tragic Kobe Bryant helicopter crash followed Vanessa Bryant’s lead and also filed wrongful death lawsuits against the helicopter company.

The surviving members of the Altobelli and Mauser families claimed that Island Express Helicopters negligently and carelessly breached its duty to own, lease, manage, maintain, control, entrust, charter and operate the helicopter in question in a reasonable manner.

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The two families are seeking unspecified damages for the anguish that the aftermath of the crash has caused them.

Vanessa previously filed a lawsuit against the helicopter company in February. According to the court documents, she claimed that the pilot failed to properly monitor and assess the weather before takeoff, failed to obtain proper weather data before the flight, failed to abort the flight when the pilot knew the cloudy condition, failed to maintain control of the helicopter, and failed to avoid “natural obstacles” in the flight’s path.

The devastating accident claimed the lives of Kobe, his daughter Gianna; Gianna’s basketball teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester; Alyssa’s parents, John Altobelli and Keri Altobelli; Payton’s mother, Sarah Chester; the team’s coach Christina Mauser; and pilot Zobayan.

On January 29, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner announced that after “round-the-clock testing and analysis of DNA,” the cause of passing for all passengers and the pilot was blunt trauma, and the manner of passing was certified as an accident.

Kobe and Gianna are survived by Vanessa and the couple’s children: Natalia, Bianka, and Capri.