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A team of NTSB investigators is painstakingly sifting through the huge debris field where Kobe Bryant's helicopter crashed, and this video shows how difficult the job will be.

The agency released this drone footage over the Calabasas hillside. You can see investigators rummaging through scattered parts of the Sikorsky S-76. Most of the aircraft is in tiny pieces ... although one large chunk of the tail section is almost intact.

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In the video, you can see investigators picking up individual pieces of the motor -- and law enforcement sources tell us all of the parts will be shipped to Arizona. The NTSB will reassemble the aircraft there.

As we reported, L.A. County Sheriff's deputies are patrolling the area to protect it from looters.