The bodies of the victims of the helicopter crash that killed basketball player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others have started to be recovered.
Bryant, a five-time NBA champion who played for the LA Lakers throughout his 20-year career, is widely considered to be among the greatest players in basketball history.
As investigators continue to scour the crash site in Los Angeles, tributes to the 41-year-old have been paid on social media and outside the Lakers home court at the Staples Centre.
Thousands of mourners gathered to pay tribute at a vigil, while fellow Laker LeBron James wrote of being ‘heartbroken and devastated’ at the news.
The pilot of the helicopter told air traffic controllers he was climbing to avoid a layer of cloud shortly before the crash into a hillside in Calabasas, west of Los Angeles, on Sunday, according to the National Transport Safety Bureau (NTSB).
