Originally Posted by
FIRESYSOK
A wrong turn down Las Virgenes Road instead of maintianing the 101 is a possibility. In that low weather very plausible, IMO.
I doubt that. The 101 goes west, Las Virgenes Rd goes south and through a built-up area, also the 101 is the much wider roadway. I don't think even in fog in a helo you could confuse the two. The pilot seems to have been Kobe Bryant's personal pilot (or at least flown him repeatedly), so he likely was familiar with the location of the Mamba Academy they were going to. What I could imagine happened is that fog rolled over the Santa Monica Mountains and down the Las Virgenes valley and while scud running they flew into a fog bank with near zero viz. In fact, someone further up the thread who lives in the area alluded to some scenario like that.
I live in L.A. and fly (small fixed wing) in that area. For those unfamiliar: radio workload was normal for the area, the numbers used are freeways which everyone who flies here is familiar with and ATC cannot hear you and/or provide radar service in that area below about 2000 / 2500 ft. The 'too low' comment refers to that.