A Sudden, Shattering Loss

It began with a rush of wind and ended in a thunderous crash that the world will never forget. On a quiet Sunday morning, January 26, 2020, basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others boarded a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter, bound for a youth basketball game at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.

he skies above Los Angeles County were blanketed with thick, stubborn fog—so dense that experienced pilots questioned whether flight was safe at all. For Kobe, that day was about nothing more than being a father: coaching, cheering, and mentoring his 13-year-old daughter, whose competitive fire so closely resembled his own.

But as their helicopter cut a northwesterly path across the county, the