https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/live-upd...ia-2020-01-26/

LAPD says they grounded their helicopters Sunday morning

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Josh Rubenstein confirmed Sunday night they had grounded the department's Air Support division grounded its helicopters in the morning due to foggy conditions and didn't fly until later in the afternoon.

"The weather situation did not meet our minimum standards for flying," Rubenstein said.

The fog "was enough that we were not flying." He said the police department's are two miles of visibility and an 800-foot cloud ceiling. The department typically flies two helicopters when conditions allow — one in the San Fernando Valley and one in the L.A. basin, he said.

This guy explains it well

https://youtu.be/cttx236mUIE

When I heard about Kobe I was saddened but understood that incidents like this, though not common, still happen from time to time. But to hear that his daughter was also lost and seeing the pictures of him and her on the news just feels like a punch In the stomach right now...just so fecking tragic. Rip to Kobe and Gianna and condolences to his family

The pics get me. That smile. That presence. That aura. That exceptionalism. That father and husband. Gone.

What an awful and tragic day. One of the greatest players ever for sure, but he was an icon around the world in a way that very few are and ever have been.

I believe there are visual flight rules and instrument flight rules. You need to behave differently, fly more seriously, pay better attention, follow more rules, et cetera. If you're driving your car on a bright sunny day you can relax a lot more than if you're driving in the windy foggy rain. Likewise, if you're not the best driver, you're gonna have a problem if you speed down the highway with no lights and wipers. Not saying this pilot was that bad, but shitty weather certainly eliminates your margin of error if you're not very good at your job.

Everyone's pretty on point on the plane vs. copter debate. Sure, you can autorotate a copter, but it's certainly not as easy or aerodynamic as an airplane. Assuming you're not too close to the ground and there's a flat area, a gliding powerless airplane is a lot easier to land as long as you have enough lift and airspeed. A powerless airplane heads horizontally for a while. A powerless helicopter heads vertically.

It takes a certain set of balls to fly a copter, or even ride in one. I remember years ago flying in a general aviation single engine Cessna with a pilot friend. We flew out of a tiny regional airstrip. In the bathroom they had a Xerox cartoon of a plane that said, "This is your brain." Under that was a helicopter and it said, "This is your brain on drugs."

Here it is. Don't watch. Damn.

Not embedding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN9v...XGryC5LfZ7r9HQ

Dude this has already been posted and debunked

Ya thats not it.

IF that's the real video of this crash (and that's a big "if"), that clearly looks like engine failure and the pilot was doing the best he could. He was autorotating straight down. If that was over flat terrain, maybe the copter crashes into the ground at a decent car-crash speed but at least you have a chance; in that canyon, no ****ing way you can do anything about it.

Good. Cause ****.

Your mom is a whore, BTW.

I think that video is a hoax. Conditions for Kobe were very foggy which isn’t the case in this video, and most of the comments in the video seem to be in Spanish (which could be the case in LA, I guess.)

I landed at LAX minutes before the crash. Horrifying. I wish I hadn’t watched that.
Prayers to all the families.

PS. The fog was exceptionally bad today here.

Was a good video for the present discussion.
That chopper. Sounded like it had power. Yet was spinning out of control..

I won’t argue the vid may be a hoax, but I will add it was a very high fog. Like you could see the road fine, but the upper atmosphere was very very thick. I asked the Uber driver we were with was it smog, and he said no. Just a bad fog.