More multimillionaires are using helicopters to beat traffic despite accidents like the one that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter. Here's how much these services cost, plus the risks involved.

• Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday as they made their way to basketball practice.
• Helicopter commuting is becoming increasingly popular, as services including Uber and New York-based startup Blade offer rides for under $200.
• You are 63 times more likely to die while riding a helicopter than on a flight with a commercial airline, according to an analysis by The Points Guy.
• Members of New York's City Council have called for a ban on private helicopter flights over Manhattan after a helicopter crashed into a Midtown office building in July.
• Bryant frequently used his private helicopter to bypass the Los Angeles area's near-constant gridlock, taking more than 42 flights in this month alone.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For the ultra-wealthy, helicopter commuting is an increasingly popular way to bypass long drive times.

For all its glamour and convenience, the burgeoning helicopter commuting industry has been hampered by increasing concerns over its exclusivity and safety following a string of high profile accidents. Basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died Sunday when their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, amid dangerous fog.

Bryant frequently used a helicopter to bypass the Los Angeles area's near-constant gridlock, according to a 2010 GQ profile of Bryant written by J.R. Moehringer. Trading long drives with short flights helped Bryant protect his injured knees and back, he told Moehringer - it's on par with other rehabilitation tools like weights, whirlpool tubs, and custom made shoes.

That type of extensive helicopter commuting isn't atypical among the 1%. The fastest-growing routes allow high net worth individuals to bypass traffic jams when traveling from city centers to airports, according to The New York Times. The number of helicopter departures from New York's JFK Airport skyrocketed by 84% from 2017 to 2018, The Times reported.

Bryant was among the growing number of ultra-wealthy people who regularly commuted via helicopter

Bryant traveled around Los Angeles so frequently that he had a helicopter custom painted with his 'Black Mamba' logo on it, according to photos seen by USA Today. Publicly available flight data accessed through FlightAware shows that that exact helicopter - a Sikorsky S-76B with the tail No. N72EX - flew more than 42 times just this month. Most of those flights were less than 45 minutes long, according to FlightAware.

At the time of the fatal crash, Bryant was believed to have been taking his daughter, her teammate, and her teammate's parents to a basketball practice at his Mamba Academy in the L.A. suburb of Thousand Oaks, Business Insider reported.

Kylie Jenner wrote on Instagram Monday that she rode on the same helicopter with the same pilot who died in the crash on multiple occasions.




Oftentimes, ultra-wealthy people purchase individual tickets for helicopter rides from services including Uber and New York-based startup Blade, The New York Times reported. Blade currently offers $195 flights from Midtown Manhattan to New York City area airports and flights that start at $695 from Midtown to the Hamptons, according to the company's website. Blade is advertising $495 flights from downtown Miami to Hard Rock Stadium for the Super Bowl on February 2.

Bryant had likely arranged some sort of long term lease for his helicopter, as records show it was owned by Island Express Helicopters at the time of the crash, although he consistently used it for several years, according to the Los Angeles Times. In New York, chartering a private helicopter for a single flight costs at least $1,500, The New York Times reported.

For those who can afford it, commuting on a helicopter is much more comfortable than jamming onto overcrowded mass transit or attempting to navigate gridlocked highways

Helicopter flights often begin in comfortable pre-departure lounges, before passengers climb into retrofitted helicopters with all the amenities of private jets, according to The New York Times. In the most upscale helicopters, passengers don't even have to wear noise-canceling headsets, CNN reported. The interior of Bryant's Sikorsky S-76B was similar to "a Cadillac" or "a limousine," or so Kurt Deetz, his former pilot, told the Los Angeles Times.

That kind of luxury has attracted multi-millionaires and billionaires from all fields to helicopter travel. President Trump was among the heads of state and business leaders who used helicopters to travel from airports in Zurich, Switzerland, to Davos last week, according to Quartz. Michele Ferrero, the late CEO of Nutella maker The Ferrero Group, was famous for taking a helicopter to work every day, the Washington Post reported in 2015. Coal mining billionaire Chris Cline and his daughter were killed in a helicopter crash in July in the Bahamas.

A string of high profile crashes has raised questions about the safety of helicopter commuting for those in the air and on the ground

A person is 63 times more likely to die while riding a helicopter than on a flight with a commercial airline, found an analysis by The Points Guy.

After a private helicopter flight crashed into an office building in Midtown Manhattan in New York in June, killing the pilot, three members of New York's City Council called for the FAA to ban all "nonessential" helicopter flights over the five boroughs, according to The New York Times. In that case, the National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot was "flying erratically" and did not know where he was, Business Insider reported.

The helicopter model that Bryant used was known to have a strong safety record, Business Insider reported. Deetz also told The Los Angeles Times that the crash that killed Bryant likely had more to do with foggy weather conditions than the aircraft itself. Deetz told The Times that he had spent over 1,000 hours flying that exact helicopter and that it was in "fantastic" condition and that Island Express had a "very good maintenance program."