Tour Plane Crash Kills 8 Near Grand Canyon

A Grand Canyon tour plane apparently lost one of its two engines Monday and crashed while trying to return to an airport. Eight of the 10 people aboard were killed, authorities said.

The crash was another in a long series of accidents involving aircraft carrying tourists over and around the Grand Canyon. Congress has imposed restrictions on air tours over the canyon, principally because of safety concerns.

In the Monday crash, the two severely burned women who survived were treated at the site and then flown by helicopter to a Flagstaff, Ariz., hospital. Officials said all the passengers were from Taiwan.

Fred O’Donnell, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said late Monday afternoon that the plane, a Piper PA-31 Navajo, left Grand Canyon Airport with 10 people, including the pilot, on board.

“Shortly after takeoff, the pilot developed an in-flight emergency, indicating he had lost an engine,” O’Donnell said. “We assume he was attempting to return to the runway when he crashed two miles northeast of the airport.” The plane went down at 3:34 p.m., O’Donnell said.

The plane belongs to Las Vegas Airlines, a tour company that operates out of North Las Vegas Airport. O’Donnell said it was believed that the plane had completed a tour of the canyon and was taking off for a return flight to its base when the crash occurred.

Capt. Sam Whitted of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department said the plane crashed in a remote, heavily wooded area.

“It’s been difficult to reach the crash site,” he said. “It’s some distance from any usable road.”

Whitted said authorities initially reached the crash site using four-wheel drive and all-terrain vehicles. Later, a helicopter landed and evacuated the two survivors.

A spokesman for the airline could not be reached for comment.

The Monday incident marks the ninth time in 11 years that sightseeing planes have crashed into the national park. At least 67 people have died since 1986.

Officials have estimated that 750,000 tourists take 50,000 flights over the park each year.

The crashes have led environmental groups and naturalists to demand a ban on Grand Canyon flights. Authorities have stopped short of that, but have implemented regulations restricting some air routes and banning low overflights.

Gary Mucho of the Los Angeles office of the NTSB said investigators were being dispatched from Los Angeles and Washington to the crash site.