The Stillness Is Too Brief

There was a tragic quiet over the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. Twenty-five persons had died in the collision of a twin-engine airplane and a helicopter--both sightseeing craft taking passengers on quick tours of a natural phenomenon that took nature millions of years to create. The silence did not last long, however, for 40 companies are engaged in the business of flying people over, in and around Grand Canyon National Park for profit. The National Park Service estimates that 50,000 such flights are conducted each year.

The crash came just as the National Park Service had concluded a series of hearings on whether to impose minimal restrictions on unregulated sightseeing flights in the park. The hearings have focused on the noise pollution created by the tours, although the question of air safety has been raised peripherally. In Phoenix on June 11, Rob Smith of the Sierra Club said, “Unfortunately, aircraft use is over capacity now . . . and any alternative ought to include cutbacks.”

It is incumbent on the Park Service now to take a much more rigorous look at the problem of unregulated tour flights in the park--from the perspective of the air-traffic hazard as well as the noise.

Quiet and serenity always have been indispensable elements in the American park and wilderness experience. Long before the internal-combustion engine was invented, naturalists wrote not just of grand vistas and splashing waterfalls but also of the music of the wilderness--from crashing thunder to a chirping insect--and the utter magic of no sound at all.

Describing a Sierra Nevada meadow, John Muir wrote that “through this flowery lawn flows a stream, silently gliding, swirling, slipping as if careful not to make the slightest noise.” Henry David Thoreau observed: “A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand.”

But the Grand Canyon’s serenity has given way to the buzzing and chopping of aircraft engines--even deep within the canyon, where no such craft should be allowed. The proliferation of tour flights mars the wilderness experience of not just the backpackers who penetrate the shadowy recesses of the canyon but also the casual tourists content to view the canyon from its rims.

This is so in spite of a 1975 law that directs the U.S. Interior Department to act whenever such activity “is having significant adverse impact on the natural quiet and experience of the park.” The Park Service is considering six options for reducing aircraft noise. But none of those options would ban all tourist flights, or even cut back on the number of tours. The most severe of the proposals, to put about 11% of the park off limits, most likely would concentrate more aircraft in a smaller space.

Resolution of the Grand Canyon noise issue is critical, for it probably will set a precedent for dealing with the problem throughout the park system. Something less than the overflight prohibition sought by some environmental groups might produce an acceptable compromise, but at least a ban should be considered among the options.

The activities of autos, hikers, rafters and just plain tourists all are regulated in the park to maintain a natural experience, including sounds as well as sights. Wednesday’s crash demonstrates the urgent need to extend controls to the air as well.