Vanessa Bryant and other families reach settlement with company that operated helicopter in deadly crash
CBSN
Vanessa Bryant and other plaintiffs have settled their lawsuit against the company that operated the helicopter involved in the crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 13-year-old Gianna Bryant and seven others last year, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Plaintiffs in the suit included Bryant and her three surviving daughters, John James and Alexis Altobelli, Christopher Chester and his two surviving children and Matthew Mauser and his three children. The group had previously filed suit against Island Express Helicopters, Inc., Island Express Holding Corp., the estate of pilot Ara George Zobayan and OC Helicopters LLC.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.