Island Express Helicopters recently received over $600,000 to deal with the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
You may recognize the name as the company who owned the same helicopter that went down and killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others.
The company received a total of $603,838 for the ‘total anticipated payroll support’ from the US Treasury Department to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Back in February, the company announced the suspension of their services until further notice and have since been subjected to various lawsuits since the crash that claimed the lives of the Los Angeles Lakers legend, 13-year-old Gianna, pilot Ara Zobayan and six others.
Vanessa Bryant had filed wrongful death lawsuit that is seeking economic and punitive damages. The lawsuit claims the company’s breach of ‘duty and negligence’ was the cause of their deaths and added Ara Zobayan’s ‘negligent conduct’ caused Kobe Bryant and Gianna’s death, for which the helicopter company is ‘vicariously liable’.
The company has since responded and said they are not responsible because the passengers on board ‘voluntarily assumed the risk of the accident’ before the crash.
It added that the damages were caused by ‘unforeseeable events’ that were ‘beyond the control of and unrelated to any actions or conduct of the owners’.
