Anyone who can play like Kobe is both.
And one of them, 13-year-old Gianna, also died in the crash. 
RIP, all of you.
He won an Academy Award for the best animated short in 2018 for Dear Basketball, so I’d say that qualifies him as an artist, too.
I just heard that there were 9 total fatalities. Jeezus.
Thank you for posting this. I had no idea this existed and am really realizing how ignorant I am of helicopters.
I wonder what happened here. 
Yikes, where did you hear that? I’m hearing 5.
LA Sheriff’s press conference just a few minutes ago. They are not releasing any names until the medical examiner confirms identities and they notify the families.
Apparently the LA sheriff reported flight manifest was pilot + eight. They’re holding names until next of kin notifications.
The sheriff, at a press conference (about ten minutes ago), said there were nine on the manifest.
ETA: Double spanked.
Trying my best to compare apples to apples, or at least to fruit, helicopters are safer on a fatal accident per flight hour rate than general aviation as a whole. I was looking at this study on helicopter accidents, which used the NTSB dataset from 2005 to 2015, and this statement from FlightSafety International on GA fatal accident rates. The first paper found a 0.7 fatal accident per 100,000 helicopter flight hours rate. The 2018 GA fatality rate was 1.029 per 100,000 flight hours.
I’m very surprised by those figures. Your guess was really close.
As to the accident, if it was weather related, CFIT, this pilot wasn’t the first helicopter pilot to be killed by inadvertent flight into IMC, and s/he won’t be the last. Those of you who are helicopter pilots, my impression is that IFR certification among your ranks is a lot less prevalent than in fixed wing GA. Would a professional pilot of a Sikorsky S-76 typically be IFR certified?
Thousands of fans are gathering outside Staples, which is also where the Grammy’s are being held tonight. It will be a surreal Red Carpet in a couple of hours.
Random observation in the South Bay:
A man holding up Kobe’s #8 jersey on the corner of two major streets. Cars passing through honking their horns (out of respect).
Hard for me to consider Kobe’s death a net loss to humanity. I’m not sure how long I’m supposed to hold raping the hotel housekeeper against a guy, but I’m disinclined to let that go. Personally I am nauseated how willing the general pubic was to let it go as well.
It’s good to add that perspective into the conversation, Inigo, so thanks.
But let’s remember that apparently two children died as well. (Yes, children are dying every day in Yemen, Chicago, and elsewhere…but still. It’s about feeling like you know someone a little, after years of seeing them on TV).
I was thinking about this today(of course) and I was wondering, what he falsely accused or not? Did we ever find out or is it unknown?
ESPN.com puts it thus:
“ While Bryant was an unqualified star on the court, he did have controversy off it. He was accused of sexual assault in Colorado in 2003. The criminal case was dropped the next year, but Bryant still issued an apology. He said he considered the encounter to be consensual but recognized that the woman “did not and does not view this incident the same way I did.”
While I am very inclined to believe her, it can’t be proven. His story was that the whole thing was consensual as far as he knew at the time. Hers was that it started out consensual but at some point she asked him to stop and he kept going.
Like we all thought we knew Cosby, sure, I get it. Point is, in a just world nobody would have remembered him apart from the prison warden, if that.
I too was thinking about this. What makes it really complex, IMO, is that he was old enough to have an entire generation who only knew him at his best, for whom the rape accusations are, at best, a vague childhood memory. I think to many, addressing that viscerally feels like you’re telling those people, “oh, your grief is wrong, because he was a rapist,” and that feels wrong. It’s a weird emotional place to be.
As an aside, I do not envy those in the federal government who had to decide official reactions after Nixon’s death. On one hand, he was President of the United States, a major figure in history, but on the other hand… I think I remember a lot of confusion and hesitation on the media’s part that day.
Yeah, the only thing I think of when I hear his name is rapist.
I’ve never watched a basketball game in my life. In spite of whatever negative feelings I may have felt towards Kobe back when the rape accusation was in the news, I’m incredibly sad about this news today. I truly can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so affected by a celebrity death.