Meadview, AZ Sightseeing Plane Crashes, June 1992

TEN KILLED IN CANYON TOUR CRASH.

SIGHTSEEING PLANE APPARENTLY LOST POWER.

Meadview, Ariz. (AP) -- A sightseeing plane crashed near the Grand Canyon when it apparently lost power after taking off from a remote airstrip, officials said. All 10 people aboard were killed.
The crash Friday was the fourth in little more than a year and the 12th since 1980 involving sightseeing aircraft and private planes in and around the canyon.
Crashes and complaints about noise have led to restriction on such flights.
The twin-engine Cessna 402 from Adventure Airlines in Las Vegas was returning from a tour of the canyon, said Gary Mucho, regional director of the National Transportation Safety Board in Los Angeles.
Planes routinely land at the airstrip before continuing on to Las Vegas, to allow passengers to see the canyon from the rim. The plane crashed about a mile from the airstrip near the western end of Grand Canyon National Park.
The plane pancaked into the ground and the fuselage and wings were intact an indication that one or both of the plane's engines may have stalled, said Larry Carver an Arizona Department of Public Safety paramedic who was one of the first people at the scene.
"From all indications it appears one of the engines quit on him and he was just taking off from the airport so he still did not have a lot of forward airspeed," Carver said.
Investigators had not determined the cause.
The dead nine passengers and a pilot were all found in the wreckage. The bodies were taken to a temporary morgue in Kingman, Ariz., said Deputy Greg Jensen of the Mohave County Sheriff's Department.

Syracuse Herald Journal New York 1992-06-20
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!