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Five killed in crash of tour helicopter at Lake Mead
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Steve Andrascik/Las Vegas Review-Journal
A Las Vegas police helicopter lands Wednesday in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area after a tour helicopter went down shortly before 5 p.m. on the Nevada side of Lake Mead. Five people were killed, including the pilot of the Sundance Helicopters aircraft. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Dec. 8, 2011 | 9:04 a.m.
UPDATE, 9 a.m., 12/8/11 - Helicopter pilot identified
Five people on a sightseeing tour died Wednesday in a helicopter crash at the Lake Mead National Recreation area.
The National Park Service said the helicopter went down shortly before 5 p.m. on the Nevada side of Lake Mead.
Agency spokesman Andrew Munoz said the victims were four passengers and the pilot.
He said the crash occurred about a half mile within the boundary of Lake Mead National Recreation Area, about four miles west of the Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment Plant near Boulder Beach. Munoz said witnesses heard the crash and reported seeing smoke west of the lake .
The remote crash site, about 30 miles from Las Vegas, is not accessible by road.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the aircraft was an AS350 tour helicopter. It was manufactured in 1989, according to the FAA registry.
It crashed along a normal route taken by tour helicopters from McCarran International Airport to Hoover Dam and back.
Munoz said he was "saddened" that a search-and-rescue mission turned into a "recovery investigation" of bodies and helicopter debris.
The National Park Service, Las Vegas police and fire departments from Clark County and Henderson responded to the initial call. Officers with the Las Vegas police search-and-rescue team reached the scene by helicopter and confirmed there were no survivors. The recovery operation and crash investigation were suspended Wednesday night and will resume this morning. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to take part.
A park ranger was sent to the crash site late Wednesday to protect the bodies and debris, Munoz said. Information on the victims will not be released until the remains have been recovered and next of kin have been notified, he said.
The crash occurred on the western side of the River Mountains.
It was unclear what might have caused the crash. The weather was mostly clear near Lake Mead on Wednesday, with a low temperature around 30 degrees and winds around 5 mph. Munoz said there were no notable conditions that might have caused the accident.
According to the park service and the FAA, the aircraft was operated by Sundance Helicopters, based in Las Vegas.
A spokesman for Sundance Helicopters said the helicopter had been giving a local tour when it went missing. He declined to answer more questions.
Sundance Helicopters has had accidents before.
A September 2003 crash east of the Grand Canyon West Airport in Arizona killed a Sundance Helicopters pilot and six passengers. Unsafe flying procedures and misjudgment were cited as the probable cause of that crash.
In August 2009, the pilot of a Sundance tour helicopter returning from the Grand Canyon with six passengers was forced to land in the Lake Mead area after the craft's controls indicated an electrical problem. No one was injured.
The company gives daily tours to the Grand Canyon starting at $334, according to its website.
Another tour that costs $509 is described as a flight over Hoover Dam and Lake Mead before the aircraft descends 3,200 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon.
The AS350 was originally manufactured by Aerospatiale and now by Eurostar in France. It is classified as a light-utility copter with room for a pilot, a co-pilot and as many as six passengers. It is used by military, police and businesses around the world and is marketed in the United States as the Astar or A-Star. It is about 40 feet long and 10 feet high. It has a three-bladed rotor and is outfitted with a Turbomeca Arriel 1SER engine.
The helicopter is flown by several Las Vegas tour companies and is used extensively by tour companies in Hawaii.
There have been several crashes of this type of helicopter in the past few years.
An AS350 helicopter crashed northwest of Reno on March 13, 2010, killing all three people on board. The copter had just dropped off a patient at Renown Medical Center in Reno and was returning to Susanville, Calif.
Fatal crashes of this type of helicopter also have been reported in Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and California and in Peru, Australia and Antarctica.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
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I wouldn't fly in a 23 year old helicopter if they paid me. I have seen ads from this company and it shows a dated looking chopper with worn looking side panels covered in dents. What a surprise.
Very tragic and my condolences to the friends and family of the deceased.
Might it not be a good idea for helos to follow roads. Then if they crash, emergancy vehicles may reach them faster? No? Okay, nevermind.
MY Thought & Prayers for the Familys of the victims of the Crash. May you all find confort in your precious memories of your loved ones.
Truly sad event! One side question though. Why would anyone wnat to go see the dam in the dark?
Frankly, I find it far more terrifying driving around Las Vegas than I do flying over Victoria Falls or Kilauea's live crater in a helicopter. It's as if a red light is a "recommendation" rather than a requirement to stop in this city. Condolences to the friends and family of the people who lost their lives in this horrible accident.
As a pilot who flew these tours for 30 years I would like to say that everybody in this industry are really sorry. We work so hard 24 hours a day to make sure this never happens and if and when it does.., it is not taken lightly, it hurts! So think of the victims and the familes and let the NTSB do their job before making comments. Thankyou
Absolute tragedy! my condolences to the families involved.
"probably hundreds of helicopters, private planes and charters crash for every one crash of a commercial jetliner"
"alvinjh - quit being a shill"
"find that private aircraft are around 5 times more likely to have a fatal accident than on an airline jet"
Let's see...are commercial helicopters 'private' aircraft?
I don't think they are but then..you're the expert that thinks correcting a wild accusation of "hundreds" of accidents to one..is the same as "5" to one.. over a baseline of hundreds of thousands of flights...
Now..about General Aviation numbers and the fatalities?
.2 fatal accidents and 6.5 fatalities per million flight hours flown--or put another way...
.05 fatal accidents and 1.57 fatalities per 100 million miles flown.
You are taking your life in your hands driving to the airport or walking across the streets of Las Vegas, but you are pretty safe when flying.
But don't let the facts discourage you from having a panic attack over whatever phobia you choose to concentrate on.
And uh..thanks for tip about "google" never would have thought of that! I mean..who knew?
General aviation is pretty darn safe. But--accidents do happen and the loss of life is tragic. Just don't hyper-ventilate and make such wild accusations and people won't feel the need to roll their eyes or correct you.
..Oh and from tthat http://www.helicopteraccidents.org/ site? It's a law firm soliciting business..
Helicopter Accidents
Money For the past forty years the law firm of Sterns and Walker has been assisting the families involved in helicopter and plane crashes throughout the world.
Sterns & Walker suggests
Contact an attorney to learn your rights
Check the attorney's record,
Be wary of insurance companies offering gifts;
Seriously!? All you people are ignorant as hell. Why would the FAA ground all the tour helicopters!? They ARE safe! All the speculation that helicopters are unsafe, private planes are unsafe...I mean really come on. And in the event a helicopter does have an engine failure, it does GLIDE. It's called an Autorotation. Google that! How many car crashes are there on a daily basis here in Vegas!? How many of them are fatalities cause all you idiots don't know how to drive!? Helicopter crashes are under a hundred a year and getting better due to better pilot training. But when one crashes everyone thinks they should all be taken out of the sky and grounded. Ignorance people! I'm going to put it out there and say this is pilot error. And most crashes are!