TMZ was first to report the news, which claimed that Kobe was on the helicopter with nine other unnamed people when it crashed at10am local time near Calabasas in California.
According to the reports, nobody survived the crash.
“We received a call just before 10am this morning of an aircraft down in the Malibu area, right off of Las Vergenes, essentially Calabasas,” said Tony Imbrenda of the Los Angeles County fire department.
“Some folks were out here mountain biking this morning, they saw an aircraft in distress, they went down into the hillside. This was a helicopter, it’s been confirmed it was an S-76 Sikorsky helicopter and unfortunately there were no survivors.”
Kobe Bryant spend his 20-year career playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. The star won five championships with the team and was named an All-Star 18 times.
In 2016 he retired, earning the title of NBA's third-highest all-time scorer. He won gold medals with Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Kobe was married to Vanessa Bryant, and shared two daughters Natalia and Gianna.
