Original title: It was revealed that Vanessa has settled with airlines for the specific amount of confidentiality or up to hundreds of millions of dollars
On June 23, Beijing time, according to many foreign media reports, Vanessa, the widow of the late NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, has reached a settlement with the Express Flight Company lawsuit, and a final settlement agreement The content was not disclosed. However, in court documents, Vanessa asked the other party to bear punitive damages, the data is as high as hundreds of millions of dollars. After the accidental death of Kobe and her daughter Jaina, Vanessa filed a lawsuit in February 2020 local time, suing the Express Flight Company for allowing the plane to take off even in bad weather, resulting in nine deaths.
Vanessa Bryant, her children and the relatives of other victims filed a settlement agreement notice with a federal judge on Tuesday local time. The notice mentioned: “The plaintiff and the defendant jointly report that they have agreed to They received their claims in the lawsuit,” but the terms of the confidentiality agreement were not disclosed, and the judge still needs to approve the agreement. If approved by the court, the settlement will end the negligence and negligence lawsuit filed against the pilot, owner, and operator of the helicopter that crashed on the hillside on January 26, 2020 local time.
At the time, Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and six other passengers were flying from Orange County to the Mamba Sports Academy in Ventura County to participate in the Youth Basketball Championship. The helicopter encountered thick fog in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. When the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter suddenly tilted and crashed into the Calabasas Mountain below, the pilot Ara Zobayan adopted a “rapid climb” strategy. Fiji almost broke through the clouds, but eventually the plane caught fire and crashed with 9 people on board. All died.
In addition to Kobe and Jaina, the other victims were the coach of Orange Coast College John Altobelli, his wife Kelly and their daughter Alyssa; Christina, who had helped Kobe coach his daughter’s basketball team -Christina Mauser; Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton. Alyssa and Payton are Jaina’s teammates.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report in February 2020 local time, blaming the accident on the pilot’s operational errors. The NTSB stated that a series of bad decisions caused Ara Zobayan to fly blindly into a cloud wall, where he lost his way so that when the spacecraft fell, he thought he was climbing. The agency also accused Island Express Helicopters Inc. of insufficient review and oversight of safety issues. It is worth noting that since 1985, this helicopter company has also experienced three other crashes. Ara Zobayan was also disciplined for entering low-visibility areas in violation of flight rules in 2015.
The settlement agreement will terminate legal proceedings against Ara Zobayan’s estate, Island Express Helicopters Inc. and its owner, Island Express Holding Corp.. Previously, Vanessa’s lawsuit accused these companies of failing to properly train or supervise Ara Zobayan, and that the pilots were careless while flying in the fog and should suspend the flight.
Island Express Helicopters denied that they were responsible and stated that the crash was a “natural disaster” beyond their control. They also counterclaimed two air traffic controllers from the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming that the crash was caused by “a series of wrong actions and/or negligence.”
Vanessa’s settlement agreement does not include a counterclaim against the federal government. She filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, accusing them of improperly taking photos of the accident site and sharing photos of the crash site with people who were not involved in the case. . “Government personnel used photos of her deceased relatives as gossip materials. The discomfort and pain she suffered is very real.” Her lawyer wrote in a document submitted to the court.
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