RIP Kobe Bryant

FPM is the standard measure expressing altitude change in pilot and ATC speech.

 

But he’s black. And is married. And is married to the mother of his children. And if you don’t think this is the unspoken narrative then your racism is of the patronizing variety

 

I love my daughter and am proud to be a #girldad. I didn't feel this way until Sunday, but now I do. Thank you Kobe.

 

Any plane (or boat for that matter) can be outfitted with all sorts of electronics. Their owners make decisions about what to add or not, based on the usefulness of the gizmo, how often it will be used, and how much it costs. Black boxes are standard for commercial air carriers, but not for private planes.

The pilot filed a flight plan under VFR, Visual Flight Rules. What he did not do is fly IFR, Instrument Flight Rules. He wasn't flying using instruments for navigation. I don't know enough about the terrain awareness system to say whether it would have helped or not, whether it kicks in automatically when the ground or an obstruction is danger close or if it would not have helped because he was flying VFR.

I am not a pilot, so large grain of salt here.

 

Not a pilot either, but I know more than I'd like about navigating in poor weather, and in fog I park it and crank music until it subsides.

I'll take my chances in the snow and the slush and the ice and the rain but fog is not to be fucked with.

 

I've held back here because, like many, goddammit, I've had problems with Kobe. But still, even as a basketball fan who didn't like his game (I know), this whole thing hit me hard.

Well, two things.

I'm the dad of an only child daughter. I don't think I need to say anything else. My God. My fucking God.

And, to Shea Serrano, this is it. This is me: Losing Kobe Bryant, the Dad

 

I really wonder where Gutman got the stated "belief" that four daughters of Kobe were aboard the helicopter. Like, who initially put that forward? It's not something that would have been on a police scanner, or put out over air-traffic control, particularly not so early on.

It seems someone must have told Gutman "his daughter" was on board, and the reporter, perhaps knowing/having some information about the makeup of Bryant's family, heard "his daughters." And assumed all four?

Especially given Gutman's substantial previous breaking-news experience, I truly wonder about the origins of that assertion.

 

As a father, not just the father of daughters, it’s horrible that children lost their father.
I have just spent 2 days at Johns Hopkins Hospital for my daughter’s surgery. And there are hundreds of parents dying there and all over the country. Kobe death is a personal tragedy for his family and a horrible loss for his children. But his life and death as a parent is no more worthy than 1 billion fathers across the planet. He cured no disease, solved no problem, invented no device to save lives, labor or help.

he was a retired entertainer of the highest order. The world was not deprived of his talents, they were thoroughly enjoyed. His death, while a tragedy should not be a societal touchstone. That he was that important to that many people shows the shallowness of the culture and the desperation of so many for a idol, however objectively flawed and inconsequential

 

It's not Kobe, per se. It's the moment. Putting myself - and my daughter - there. That is what is wretching.

 

It's OK to feel sad for all involved while at the same time thinking how badly this has been covered, dressed-up and presented, and how abhorrent it is that certain people get to be absolved of their sins while others don't.

 

He wasn't even the only parent with a child on that helicopter. It should be just as gut-wrenching to think what the Altobelli family (Mom Keri, Dad John and daughter Alyssa) thought over those final few awful minutes, as they realized their other two children were about to lose their sister and become orphans, or what Sarah Chester thought as she tried protecting Payton. Anyone anywhere gonna think about them, or is their loss, and the loss of their families, footnotes as the rest of the country grieves over guy who put ball in hoop?

 

That is wrenching. My wife is dying of terminal cancer, there is no cure We are living with death everyday. My children are watching their mother go through unspeakable misery. Not that I want Rachel or Robin to shed a tear on camera for my wife, but it’s almost offensive that they do. And won’t for my wife, or the children dying at the pediatric cancer ward I passed today. Or the mother I witnessed today who was literally yellow from liver failure, being wheeled with her kids. There’s so much sorrow and misery that this outpouring is offensive.