Kobe Bryant helicopter crash puts spotlight on Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky S-76B, investigations underway

The maker of the helicopter that crashed and killed former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant on Sunday pledged to investigate the incident.

Defense contractor and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin said it would probe the crash of its Sikorsky S-76B helicopter in Calabasas, California, near Malibu, which killed nine people.

The S-76 series helicopter debuted in the 1970s. Sikorsky has made several major upgrades to it since then, including the most recent S76-D model. The company has sold than 875 worldwide, including 103 units of the S-76B, Sikorsky spokesperson Callie Ferrari said in an email.

There were no immediate indications that defects or systems failures caused the crash.

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