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1986 Grand Canyon mid-air collision

Fatal aircraft collision in Arizona, US

Field	Value
name	1986 Grand Canyon mid-air collision
Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6Helitech Flight 2
occurrence_type	Accident
date
summary	Mid-air collision
site	Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, United States
total_fatalities	25
total_survivors	0
plane1_image	N76GC (Grand Canyon Airlines).jpg
plane1_caption	N76GC, the aircraft involved in the collision, seen in August 1983
plane1_type	DHC-6 Twin Otter
plane1_operator	Grand Canyon Airlines
plane1_tailnum	N76GC
plane1_occupants	20
plane1_origin	Grand Canyon National Park Airport, United States
plane1_destination	Grand Canyon National Park Airport, United States
plane1_passengers	18
plane1_crew	2
plane1_fatalities	20
plane1_survivors	0
plane2_image	Bell 206B G-BUZZ.jpg
plane2_caption	A Bell 206 similar to the helicopter involved in the collision
plane2_type	Bell 206
plane2_operator	Helitech
plane2_tailnum	N6TC
plane2_occupants	5
plane2_origin	Tusayan, Arizona, United States
plane2_destination	Tusayan, Arizona, United States
plane2_passengers	4
plane2_crew	1
plane2_fatalities	5
plane2_survivors	0
plane1_callsign	CANYON 6
plane2_callsign	TECH 2

Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6Helitech Flight 2

The Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred when Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collided with a Bell 206 helicopter, Helitech Flight 2, over Grand Canyon National Park on June 18, 1986. All 25 passengers and crew on board the two aircraft were killed. It remained the deadliest accident involving a helicopter on United States soil for nearly 40 years, surpassing the crash of Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 in 1968, until being surpassed itself by the Potomac River mid-air collision in 2025.

Collision

On the morning of the accident, Grand Canyon Airlines Canyon 6 took off from Grand Canyon National Park Airport at 8:55am for a sightseeing flight over Grand Canyon National Park with two pilots and 18 passengers on board; the pilots were operating their second scenic flight for the day. At 9:13 am,Helitech Flight 2 took off from the company's heliport in Tusayan, Arizona, for a 30-minute sightseeing flight. At approximately 9:33, at an altitude of approximately 6500 ft, the Bell 206 and DHC-6 collided, with the helicopter on the left of the Twin Otter and the two aircraft traveling at approximately right angles to each other. The helicopter's main rotor struck the nose landing gear and tail of the Twin Otter. The Bell 206's main rotor was torn off and disintegrated and the Twin Otter's tail separated, causing both aircraft to crash. All 20 passengers and crew on Canyon 6, and the pilot and four passengers on Tech 2, were killed in the accident.

Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board found that the crews of the two aircraft failed to 'see and avoid' each other, but could not determine why this occurred due to the lack of recorded flight data (there being no requirement for such recording for the scenic flights that were being operated). The accident investigation also found that the limited number of scenic points of interest in the Grand Canyon concentrated flights over these points, increasing the risk of collision; and recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulate the separation of flight routes of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Following the accident, the FAA imposed changes to the operation of scenic flights over the Grand Canyon.

References

"NTSB Identification: DCA86AA028B".
"The Tale of Los Angeles Airways and the Skycrane".
[https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR8703.pdf National Transportation Safety Board report of investigation into mid-air collision over Grand Canyon National Park]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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