Vanessa Bryant Is Suing the Helicopter Operator She Says Is Responsible for the Deaths of Her Husband and Daughter

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Vanessa Bryant Is Suing the Helicopter Operator She Says Is Responsible for the Deaths of Her Husband and Daughter
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Vanessa Bryant has filed a lawsuit against the company that operated the helicopter that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna, saying the pilot was negligent by flying in cloudy conditions when he should have cancelled the flight.

In addition to naming the owner and operator, the suit also names pilot Ara Zobayan’s representative or successor, saying he was “negligent in eight different ways, including failing to properly assess the weather, flying into conditions he wasn’t cleared for and failing to control the helicopter,” according to the AP.

Zobayan had been cited back in 2015 for violating visual flight rules that required him to see where he was going. The pilot, of course, died along with everyone else on board when the chopper crashed in Calabasas on January 26.

According to the complaint,

“On information and belief, Defendant Island Express Helicopters employed Defendant Zobayan with conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others and authorized or ratified his wrong conduct, and itself engaged in conduct with malice, oppression, or fraud.”

In his final transmission before the crash, Zobayan told air traffic control that he was climbing to get above the clouds. He was 100 feet away from doing that when the helicopter banked left and crashed into a hillside. [AP]


Pete Davidson has had a dramatic couple of years, squeezing in the occasional bout of work between courtships with various brunette women. While he has no specific plans to pursue anything serious with any of them, there is one woman he’d consider raising a child with: His mom. As he told Charlamagne Tha God during a nice, long interview (via People):

“I want to be there for something or do something that I didn’t have growing up. That’s my biggest thing,” said Davidson, who revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder after years of battling depression and anxiety.
The 26-year-old comedian revealed that he’s also considered adopting with his mother.
“I’m at the point where I’m like, ‘Maybe I should adopt.’ Me and my mom or something, just adopt,” he said, jokingly adding, “I think everybody is afraid of the Davidson seed.”

Intergenerational parenting! It doesn’t have to be weird unless you make it weird! [People]


  • There’s some evidence that Hayden Panettiere may have broken up with her abusive boyfriend. [The Hollywood Gossip]
  • Tom Sandoval says Jax Taylor is “angry and projecting,” same. [Us]
  • Guy Fieri hit the club. [Page Six]
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