Princewill Pius
As we noted, Vanessa Bryant filed a lawsuit against Island Express Helicopters and “Doe 1,” a legal representative or successor for Zobayan as a defendant. It’s unclear who “Doe 1” is, but it’s common for this term to be used when a name can’t be determined or is being withheld for legal reasons. Either way, the pilot was accused of failing to “properly monitor and assess the weather prior to takeoff,” failing to “obtain proper weather data prior” to the flight, failing to “abort the flight when he knew of the cloudy conditions,” and “improperly” flying the “helicopter into instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions,” to name a few complaints, according to BuzzFeed News. The suit also revealed Zobayan was allegedly “disciplined in 2015 for violating the visual flight rule minimums by flying into an airspace of reduced visibility,” per TMZ.
As for Island Express Helicopters, the suit argues the helicopter shouldn’t have been allowed to fly in the first place given the low visibility conditions. The legal filing alleges the chopper “was not safe,” as TMZ noted, with the outlet theorizing how this possibly “could be the basis for the claim” that the “helicopter was not certified to fly in bad weather.” As you might recall, the company’s helicopters were reportedly only certified for visual flight rules (VFR). Last but not least, the lawsuit admonished the business for not equipping its choppers with a terrain avoidance warning system.
Written by: Nicki
