A sightseeing tour helicopter crashed Wednesday not far from Lake Mead in Nevada, killing the five people aboard.
The chopper was on what appeared to be a routine trip until just a minute before impact, when it “took an unplanned sharp left turn and then steeply declined into a ravine,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper also reported that the helicopter, operated by Sundance Helicopters, had its engine and several parts replaced the day before the accident.
The crash happened as the helicopter was making a 40-minute tour at dusk, a trip that goes from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to over the Strip and then to Hoover Dam and back.
Two of the victims were apparently tourists from New Delhi, India.
The other people that died in the crash were pilot Landon Nield, 31, of Las Vegas, and a married couple that was celebrating its 25th wedding anniversary, Delwin and Tamara Chapman of Utica, Kan., according to the Review-Journal.
Delwin Chapman, 49, was on the Utica City Council. His wife Tammy, 49, had run a hair salon until just recently. She had multiple sclerosis.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was investigating the crash scene, about 2.7 square miles, on Friday, and they recovered the chopper’s engine, photographed the area and talked to witnesses, according to the Review-Journal.
Investigators had a hard time reaching the crash site, having to use an all-terrain vehicle, hike and then use a ladder to get to the wreckage, according to the newspaper.
On Tuesday the helicopter had a 100-hour flight maintenance check. Its engine and two actuators, mechanical control devices, were replaced ”because of lfetime limits on the parts,” the Review-Journal quoted an NTSB investigator as saying.
The helicopter then did a maintenance flight, as well as flying two tours, before the fatal accident.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
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