A tourist helicopter crashed in the Grand Canyon on Saturday, killing three people and injuring four others, Arizona media and a federal aviation spokesman said.
The helicopter was on a tour of the canyon, one of the top U.S. tourist destinations and more than a mile deep, when it went down, a dispatcher for the Hualapai Department of Emergency Services told Phoenix television station KNXV.
UPDATE: First Images of downed Papillon aircraft near #GrandCanyon – Pic courtesy Teddy Fujimoto pic.twitter.com/zhRlnDDcx3
— Gerard Ramalho (@GerardNews3LV) February 11, 2018
Three people are confirmed dead after a helicopter carrying six passengers and a pilot crashed in the Grand Canyon, police say https://t.co/PV7F0lV2GZ pic.twitter.com/IMQcFS6EZZ
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 11, 2018
He said three people were killed and four had unknown injuries, and that authorities were possibly looking for one or two more people, the station reported.
Police Chief Francis E. Bradley of the Hualapai Nation Police Department also wrote in a statement that the accident occurred at around 5:20 p.m. local time near Quartermaster Canyon.
He added, “The only access to the crash site area is by foot on a 20-mile hike or by helicopter.”
Rescuers continue to work to reach survivors of horrific Grand Canyon helicopter crash https://t.co/plWFC9kpgk pic.twitter.com/U0Yj1o6Xp7
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) February 11, 2018
NEW PHOTOS: 3 dead, 4 injured after helicopter crashes in Grand Canyon National Park https://t.co/R1K526uaQ0 pic.twitter.com/tNWM2dY5e7
— ABC News (@ABC) February 11, 2018
4 Killed In Grand Canyon Helicopter Crash https://t.co/GfttwDZVHO
— NPR (@NPR) February 11, 2018
The Hualapai Department of Emergency Services directed calls to police, who did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The helicopter, the Eurocopter EC130 from Airbus, “crashed under unknown circumstances in the Grand Canyon” and suffered substantial damage, Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an email.
“Local authorities say that at least seven people were on board the helicopter,” he said. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, Kenitzer said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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