[snoringbear]

My wife and I took one of these helicopter tours about two weeks ago. It’s the only way to see the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam as far as I’m concerned.

[KeyLargo]

Be very careful in your selection of an any air tour operator and know their safety history.

Helicopters: the Wrong Way to see Grand Canyon
Posted on May 23, 2014

Five days ago, a pilot employed by Papillon was killed when his/her helicopter rolled over while being repositioned on the floor of Grand Canyon. [article] The air tour passengers had already been off-loaded, so none of them were injured when the fatal accident happened. In the five days since, there has been no new information; neither FAA nor NTSB has released the gender, age or name of the pilot, nor have any weather conditions or other pertinent facts been presented to the Public. We are left to wonder why this tragedy happened, and could it happen again.

There have been many fatal air tour crashes around Grand Canyon. In fact, a careful analysis of news stories and the NTSB accident database reveals thirty significant accidents since 1980, some fatal and some non-fatal. A few were horrific, killing six, ten, and as many as twenty-five. Even the minor accidents hint at air tour practices that add unnecessary risk:

crowding too many helicopters together at remote landing spots,
parking helicopters too close to picnic tables,
worker fatigue, due to long workdays for the pilots and mechanics,
lack of maintenance oversight,
lack of FAA safety oversight, etc.

Here is a link to a list with short summaries for each of the thirty accidents. Each dated event has further links to online news articles and NTSB reports.

Read at:

http://aireform.com/helicopters-the-wrong-way-to-see-grand-canyon/

Also comments from readers of the LVRJ News regarding the crash last year:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/fire-rescue/pilot-killed-helicopter-crash-sunday-grand-canyon

[HotHunt]

When I was a Boy Scout back in the day, I walked from the south rim to the bottom at Phantom Ranch and back out again, after spending the night. I did it again as a scout leader with the boys in our troop. Both times it was a real humbling experience, being able to see how massive the canyon is up close and personal and overcoming the physical limits on the body.

In high school, I was a delegate to Boys State in Arizona and roomed with a fella named Charlie LaBenz. He later went on to became a track star at Arizona State University. But he said his biggest accomplishment was the record he held for running the Grand Canyon rim to rim and back again. It's called R2R2R. I don't know how long he held it or remember what his time was, but as a long distance runner myself at the time, I marveled at his accomplishment. Since then, others have replaced his record, but it was his for the time I knew him.

[liberalh8ter]

My husband and I were married in the Grand Canyon via helicopter out of Las Vegas. A year later, we flew out of Vegas to Arizona where we took a helicopter tour of that portion of the Canyon. For both trips we used Maverick helicopters and both experiences were top notch. I would highly recommend doing this and doing it through Maverick.

[Fiji Hill]

The Grand Canyon--Tioga County, Pa.

[Steve0113]

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