On This Day - What happened 26 January 2020 AD

On 26 January, the city of Shantou in Guangdong declared a partial lockdown, though this was reversed two hours later. This created chaos, as residents rushed to supermarkets to stock food as soon as the lockdown was declared until the authorities reversed their decision. Caixin said, that the wording of Shantou's initial declaration was "unprecedentedly strict" and will severely affect residents' lives if implemented as-is. Shantou's Department for Outbreak Control later clarified, that they will not restrict traveling, and all they would do, is to sterilize vehicles used for transportation. A total of 2,014 confirmed 2019-nCoV cases have been reported globally reported by the WHO.

At 9:06 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, with nine people aboard: Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six family friends and the pilot. The helicopter was registered to the Fillmore-based Island Express Holding Corp., according to the California Secretary of State business database. The group was traveling to a basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks.

At 9:45 a.m. the helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and caught on fire. Bryant, his daughter, and the other seven occupants were killed. This also started a quarter-acre bush fire. At 9:47 a.m. authorities were called. Personnel from the Los Angeles County Fire Department attended the scene, and paramedics rappelled from a helicopter to the scene to look for survivors. The fire was difficult to extinguish due to the presence of magnesium, but the fire had been extinguished by 10:30 a.m. Initial reports indicated that the helicopter crashed in the hills above Calabasas in a heavy fog. Witnesses reported hearing a helicopter struggling before crashing.