Bodies of Victims of Grand Canyon Crash Lifted Out as Inquiry Begins

Flags flew at half-staff in the Grand Canyon-rim town of Tusayan on Thursday as the bodies of the 25 victims of Wednesday’s crash of two sightseeing aircraft were lifted out of the canyon by helicopter.

As the last of the black plastic body bags was placed on a truck early Thursday afternoon for transport to the coroner’s morgue in Flagstaff, a team from the National Transportation Safety Board convened a meeting to begin searching for the cause of the mid-air collision of a DeHavilland Twin Otter airplane and a Bell 206 helicopter.

The federal investigators were not expected to visit the crash site until today, according to Rachel Halterman, a spokeswoman for the safety agency.

Canyon sightseeing tours by the two companies whose aircraft were lost in the tragedy--Grand Canyon Airlines and Helitech Inc.--were canceled. Both planned to resume flights today.

James Ingraham and Bruce Grubb, pilots of the Twin Otter, “were very good friends of mine,” Kirby Lowe, a Grand Canyon Airlines customer service representative, said Thursday. “They were two of our most experienced pilots here at the Grand Canyon. . . . We’re a small airline. Everybody here knows Bruce and Jim.”

Memorial Service

Lowe said the airline was helping organize a special memorial service to be held Sunday for the passengers and crew of both aircraft.

The airplane carried 11 passengers from the Netherlands, a South African, two Swiss and four Americans, as well as the two pilots. John Thybony was flying the helicopter, which carried four West German sightseers. The Park Service had said earlier that the four were Americans.

Thybony had “eight years’ experience--same route, same canyon, same type of helicopter,” said Dan O’Connell, co-owner of Helitech Inc. Thybony, the father of two small children, was “conservative, conscientious, just an exemplary person and pilot,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell and Lowe both said they believe that sightseeing flights over the canyon are safe.

Wednesday’s crash was the first accident in more than 60 years of such tours by Grand Canyon Airlines, Lowe said.

Sees No ‘Undue Hazard’

“The chances of an airplane and a helicopter running together are very, very remote,” O’Connell said. “I could see it happening in Los Angeles or San Diego a lot more readily than it happening here. At 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, I’ll be in a helicopter out here doing the same thing I’ve been doing the past 14 years, and truly in my heart I’m not going to feel I’m exposing myself to any undue hazard.”

At other sightseeing tour companies, business continued as usual Thursday.

“It was beautiful!” exclaimed Sue Hyde, 75, of Fayetteville, N.C., after concluding a 30-minute Grand Canyon Helicopters tour. “I wouldn’t have missed it for a million dollars. It really means a lot to me.”

Several tour operators criticized environmentalist opposition to canyon flights, and said many tour passengers are people who physically cannot hike or raft through the canyon.

“I think the hundreds of thousands of people flown over the canyon have the same rights as the people who hike into the canyon,” O’Connell said.

The National Park Service estimates that 50,000 flights pass over the canyon each year. Last month environmental groups filed suit seeking to force the federal government to restrict the flights.

‘No Problem of Safety’

James L. Kahan, executive vice president of Grand Canyon Helicopters, called it a “cheap shot” for opponents of canyon flights--whose primary concern has been noise--to now attack such flights on safety grounds.

“The canyon is 1.5 million acres large,” Kahan said. “It’s twice the size of Rhode Island. . . . You could fit the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, New York and Chicago in the Grand Canyon with room to spare. . . . There is absolutely no problem of safety in the Grand Canyon.”