Vanessa Bryant, the wife of late basketball star Kobe Bryant has filed a lawsuit against Fillmore-based Island Express Holding Corp. and Island Express Helicopters in relation to the death of her husband Kobe and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna alongside seven others.
News of the suit filtered into the media space as mourners gathered at Staples Center on Monday for a memorial service to celebrate the lives of Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
Vanessa’s attorneys filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the company who owned the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter, Island Express Helicopters and Island Express Holding Corp, were only allowed to fly under visual flight rules, and the conditions the day of the crash were not conducive for such flying.
The 27-count complaint is seeking general damages, economic damages, punitive damages and more.
In the suit that was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, it claimed that pilot Ara Zobayan who also died in the crash failed “to use ordinary care in piloting the subject aircraft” and was “negligent.”
The lawsuit claims the pilot was going180 miles per hour in the heavy fog in a steep decline in the moments before it crashed in Calabasas, CA.
