Death in Grand Canyon

J

Jack Roberts

Moderator - Deceased
I just finished reading the book "Death in Grand Canyon."
I highly recommend it. It covers all the known deaths in grand canyon. There are all the expected deaths: falls off cliffs, drowning in the river, heat stroke, freezing, suicide, murder, flash floods, etc.
The surprising thing is that one thing has caused more deaths in the grand canyon than all other causes combined.

You would never guess. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
The top cause of death, more than all others combined, is airplane crashes. Unexpected but true.
So for your safety: hike the cliffs, float the river, but do not fly over the canyon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Jack
 
I believe it. I found the wreckage of a small airplane and the remains of the pilot about ½ mile south of the runway at Tusayan. When I bought a deputy back to the site, he confirmed that the plane had been stolen from the airport a month before I found it. A couple of years later a tour plane crashed at the airport. Some of the people in our camp heard the crash and the sirens of the emergency vehicles.
 
Jack,

I suspect they are not from flying "over" the canyon, but rather flying down through the canyon.

Don't you think?

Not enough airspeed to climb out, or enough turning radius to navigate sharp bends in the canyon walls?
 
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Huh, that's interesting. Do you know why?



Cause the plane these folks were flying in failed to stay in the air.

Seriously my guess would be that depth perception and perspective are clouded a bit once you are in or over the Grand Canyon given its geographic features.
 
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William Johnstone



not too surprised, i'd say, didn't they ban flying in the grand canyon some years ago?

I remember back in the late 70's I was at Nellis AFB fixing the planes with the NJANG while the pilots were doing desert training. on the middle weekend a bunch of us hitched a ride with a navy crew in their helicopter, and flew into the grand canyon, side doors wide open, now THAT'S the way people should see the grand canyon.
 
As a fellow pilot, I'm sure Jack will have an opinion also, but I would venture to suspect that it is one of two things.....

The warmer the air, the less effective an airplane is. Due to the higher temps at times it could make a ascent out of the canyon impossible, and in the tight quarters there quite possibly wouldn't be room to navigate and create additional climbing time. A novice pilot or one not familiar with mountain flying could fall victim to this easily. Downdrafts could also be a major factor and eliminate the ability to climb to an escape.

Not paying attention would be my best guess, however. Tight quarters, nice scenery, and all of a sudden there's a canyon wall on all 3 sides that you can't climb over. And that nice, lazy 180* standard rate turn that you make in the flatlands takes WAY more space than you thought it did. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

You gotta plan ahead in an airplane. You can't just stop and get out like when in a car.
 
High density altitude and severe turbulence are factors. Except for the 2 airliners colliding back in the 50s, most of the people killed are on sightseeing tours. Commercial tour companies conduct 90,000 flights a year over the canyon. They crash for various reasons including midairs, but one thing is clear from examining the statistics; you are much less likely to die in a single engine plane. The death rate in twins is several times higher. The reason being that at that density altitude a twin will not fly on one engine and attempting to do so causes complete loss of control.

Jack
 
Flying in that type of terrain can really be trying for the pilots. It can be a real eye opener on what the real limits are of your aircraft and this is generally not the time to find this kind of stuff out.

I am not a pilot, however for a few years I sat in both fixed wing and helicopters running the instruments to complete aerial geophysical surveys at low elevations - a constant 300' off the deck type of low level! Didn't matter about the terrain type, contract was for 300 feet.

Let me tell you that I have had lots, I mean lots of close calls until I finally quit the job after losing a turbine engine and coming down in a auto rotation in a Llama helicopter and the company asking me if I was sure we wouldn't get anymore production that day.

The company lost 3 fixed wing aircraft in a year and half and that include losing a total of 9 crew members. I almost was one of the 9 people until I got to go home for a while instead of going to work.

Planes are fun, however they do have a problem of falling out of the sky once and a while.

Greg
 
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Commercial tour companies conduct 90,000 flights a year over the canyon.



DANG! That's 246 flights a DAY. I don't doubt your figures Jack, but that sounds almost impossible unless there are 40-50 companies doing it.

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The death rate in twins is several times higher. The reason being that at that density altitude a twin will not fly on one engine and attempting to do so causes complete loss of control.



Fact of the matter is, according to recent FAA research, most light twins are loaded to the point that they won't maintain altitude during an engine failure at ANY power setting. These newer pilots aren't using their calculators and taking into consideration what situations they might be presented with. Way too many electronics and not enough brain usage anymore.

I have heard recently about a few private "pilots" that ran out of fuel because they got lost in clear skies with a complete electrical failure......they couldn't read their charts well enough to find their way home. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 

Fact of the matter is, according to recent FAA research, most light twins are loaded to the point that they won't maintain altitude during an engine failure at ANY power setting. These newer pilots aren't using their calculators and taking into consideration what situations they might be presented with. Way too many electronics and not enough brain usage anymore.


This is oh so true.

Greg
 






I have heard recently about a few private "pilots" that ran out of fuel because they got lost in clear skies with a complete electrical failure......they couldn't read their charts well enough to find their way home. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif



When I was in flight school working on my commercial rating we had to do a cross country flight landing at three different airports with a round trip of 150 miles. We had an instructor who took out the gps card so the gps wouldnt work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. Everybody was upset that they had to use the "old method" using charts,compass and stopwatch. I wasnt to fond of it either /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif. Last spring I ferried a helicopter from Las Vegas to Ney york with two gps's. When I hit Kansas the first gps went blank. No big deal I thought I have another /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif. Well the very next morning the second one wouldnt turn on. I took it to a repair station and they were three days out before they could look at it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif. I had two days to get the heli to New York or I was in trouble. So headed east. It was actually a very fun and challenging flight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif. I was thankfull to my old flight instructor for pounding the skills in my stubborn head after that flight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif. I called him and thanked him he said in ten years of flight instruction I was the first person to thank him for that.

Back to the original topic. If nobody belives the canyon does that many flights needs to visit Boulder city airport or Grand canyon west airport in July or August /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. It is amazing how many airplanes and helicopters take off and land from those small airports /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif.
 
I believe its due to the terrian, number of flights and the conditions. My son was there this summer on a fire. He watched a sick fire fighter from another hotshot crew loaded onto the S&R helicopter from the park for a trip to the hospital in Flagstaff. The end result was a mid air collison that killed pilot, crew and fire fighter. I work fires in the summer, so does my son and daughter. We all worry about helicopter rides even though they take every precaution. My daughter works helitac and flies often for the Forest Service. Both my wife and I wish she would switch to something else. Even with all the required maintaince for helicopters those things sure seem more prone to break downs than regular fixed wing planes. A break down in flight is a bad thing regardless of the auto rotate capabilities of the helicopter. I know more planes have crashed there than helicopters.
 
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We had an instructor who took out the gps card so the gps wouldnt work . Everybody was upset that they had to use the "old method" using charts,compass and stopwatch. I wasnt to fond of it either....



Yeah...well...I'm going to tell my AGE here, but when I was training, we didn't even know that a GPS was! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Never even heard of them! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

As a matter of fact....our little Cherokee 180 was the FIRST airplane at our airport to have a LORAN. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

But that was in the 1970's... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Hidalgo,

"DANG! That's 246 flights a DAY. I don't doubt your figures Jack, but that sounds almost impossible unless there are 40-50 companies doing it."

It actually is worse than that as most of the flights happen in the peak tourist season that is only about 5 months long. So there are easily 500 flights a day in peak season.

Jack
 
I'd also recommend "Death In Yellowstone" it's a very interesting read. If I remember correctly the cause of the most deaths in Yellowstone was people either falling into or getting into the thermal pools.
 

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If I remember correctly the cause of the most deaths in Yellowstone was people either falling into or getting into the thermal pools.





That sounds like a crappy way to go... I would prefer petting the bears..
 
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