What Goes Up Comes Down
A record of plane accidents in the Grand Canyon National Park.
A fellow researcher was on the hunt for records of missing people in the national park system and found a good source at The Morning Report. A website of the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior. It features listings in the national park system from missing hikers, deaths, or accidents. They are divided up into Field Incident Reports, NPS Morning Reports, and Coalition Reports. All Federal parks in the NPS can be accessed here: https://npshistory.com/morningreport/
Of note here, is a listing of aircraft accidents, not all of which, resulted in the deaths of the passengers or crew. What is recorded here are crashes and aircraft mechanical failures from 1988 to 2004. The years 2005-2007 feature no crashes. It’s unknown why this slacking off of incidents occurred. Only four crashes were reported through the years of 2008-2020. The NPS has posted no further reports after 2020, with no explanation cited.
These can be found here for further examination: https://npshistory.com/morningreport/incidents/grca.htm
Aircraft Accidents from 1988 to 2004:
*Apr 16, 1988 - A single engine Cessna made an emergency landing after the engine failed while traveling towards Grand Canyon airport. The plane was carrying 7 passengers. There were no injuries.
*June 7, 1988 - A fixed wing aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on the East Rim when the engine failed while flying at 10,500 feet over the Grand Canyon. There were no injuries.
*Sep 28, 1989 - A Grand Canyon Airlines De Havilland plane with 21 people on board crashed during the final approach to Grand Canyon Airport during the morning on Sep 28 killing both pilots and 8 passengers. Cause of crash: unknown.
*Oct 11, 1989 - A Cessna crashed while making an emergency landing due to unspecified technical issues. The plane had left around noon and started having issues 30 minutes into the flight. The pilot and his two passengers were injured but survived.
*Apr 13, 1990 - A Cessna crashed at the Grand Canyon Airport just after 3pm. All seven people on board survived with injuries. Cause of crash: unknown.
*May 14, 1991 - A Cessna tour plane crashed inside the park for unknown reasons killing all seven people on board including the pilot.
*Dec 11, 1991 - A Piper Navajo disappeared with 5 people on board while returning from a sightseeing flight. Emergency locators indicate the plane went down in a very remote area, search ongoing.
*Aug 24 1992 - The pilot of a tour plane made an emergency landing on the North Rim just before sunset after losing power for unknown reasons. The pilot and 6 passengers suffered no injuries.
* Aug 28, 1992 - A Cessna 207 made an emergency landing on the North Rim, after the pilot called the tower at Grand Canyon Airport to report that he had lost power. Both the pilot and 6 passengers suffered no injuries. The Cessna lost all power and they were unsure how to remove the plane from where it made the emergency landing.
*Aug 7, 1993 - Two tour helicopters collided ten feet off the ground, injuring all 14 passengers. One helicopter was landing, the other was taking off. Cause of crash: Unknown.
*Feb 13, 1995 - A Piper Navajo with one pilot and 9 passengers crashed 2.5 miles north of Grand Canyon airport, killing 8 of the 10 occupants. No other details available.
*Sep 6, 1995 - An aircraft flying illegally below the rim of the Grand Canyon narrowly missed colliding with the park helicopter.
*June 9, 1996 - The Park’s helicopter was returning from a Medevac flight during the afternoon when it experienced a series of stalls in the turbine engine. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing. Nobody was injured.
*Aug 2, 1996 - Around 10:20 am on Aug 2nd a small plane crashed at the base of a cliff 2,500 feet below the canyon rim. The craft burned on impact and no number of victims was provided.
*Oct 5, 1996 - A Cessna 172 crashed near the south entrance of the park around 9am, killing all 4 occupants. The pilot had reported that he was having trouble gaining altitude for unknown reasons before the crash.
*Apr 2, 1997 - A Cessna 210 with 2 people on board crashed south of the park for unknown reasons. The body of the second occupant of the plane was only found several weeks later by a Ranger and her dog Sarena.
*Nov 29, 1997 - A Cessna 206 with 5 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing on the west end of the park after the pilot reported mechanical problems with the engine. There were no injuries.
*Apr 16, 1998 - A single engine Cessna made an emergency landing outside the park on April 16. The plane was flying from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon Airport when the engine failed. The pilot and 7 passengers were uninjured.
*May 18, 1998 - A single engine Cessna struck the trees and crashed on the rim at La Vista Encantata, killing both people onboard. Cause of the accident: Unknown.
*June 17, 1998 - A one engine fixed wing aircraft flying at around 10,500 altitude experienced engine failure. The pilot contacted Grand Canyon Airport and was able to make an emergency landing. There were no injuries.
*Apr 1, 1999 - A Papillon Bell helicopter lost power during take off for a training flight in the afternoon on April 1st. It struck a tree and crashed killing the trainee pilot. The instructor pilot survived. Cause of the loss of power: Unknown.
*Aug 3, 1999 - A Cessna took off from Grand Canyon Airport just after 2pm and crashed just 1 mile north of the airport for unknown reasons, killing two of the occupants. The third person survived.
*Apr 18, 2000 - A Bell helicopter with 7 people on board crashed during take off at Grand Canyon airport around 11am. The pilot reported that he lost power at around 300 feet above the ground. The passengers only suffered minor injuries.
*July 22nd, 2000 - A twin engine Piper Navajo lost one of its engines over the Grand Canyon for unknown reasons. The pilot was able to make an emergency landing. There were nine passengers on board, and no reported injuries.
*Sep 23, 2000 - A single engine Cessna made a crash landing in the Kaibab National Forest southeast of the Grand Canyon after the pilot experienced technical issues. The four occupants of the plane suffered minor injuries.
*Aug 11, 2001 - A tour helicopter crashed at the edge of the park for unknown reasons killing 6 people and critically injuring a 7th person. The crash was in a very remote area and it took substantial resources to reach the crash site.
*Sep 13, 2002 - A Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft crashed near Cataract Canyon. The pilot, G.H. was found dead inside the cockpit. Shortly before the crash the pilot had reported electrical problems to the control tower in Los Angeles.
*Jan 8, 2003 - A Twin Engine Piper PA-23 with 4 people on board disappeared from radar near Flagstaff, Arizona during a snowstorm. The wreckage of the plane was found by a hiker 10 days later on Shultz Peak, at 9,000 feet. All on board perished. Cause of the crash: Unknown.
*May 28, 2003 - A twin engine Aero Commander crashed during takeoff from Grand Canyon airport. All four people on board survived the crash with injuries. There are no details as to what caused the crash.
*Aug 2, 2003 - A tour helicopter suffered a total electrical failure forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. All aboard were okay.
*Oct 16, 2003 - the park’s helicopter crashed two miles north of the park boundary. The McDonnell Douglas helicopter had just completed a reconnaissance flight when the controls failed during the approach to land. All 5 occupants were okay. The pilot had 25 years experience and 10,000 flying hours. He was baffled by the incident.
*May 15, 2004 - A single engine plane exploded and crashed near the North Rim. There were no survivors. The plane had disappeared from radar while flying at 16,500 feet. Cause of crash: Unknown.
Total: 32 Aircraft Accidents
Engine failure: 6
Electrical/Power Failure: 6
Unspecified Technical Issues: 20
Aircraft Accidents from 2005 to 2025:
2005 - No reported Aircraft crashes
2006 - No reported Aircraft crashes
2007 - No Reported Aircraft crashes
*June 29, 2008 - Two helicopters collided in the Grand Canyon killing a young Firefighter of an elite Blackfeet firefighting crew. Six people total were killed in the collision. No other details or cause of collision available.
*March 13, 2011 - A small experimental plane disappeared in the Grand Canyon after the pilot activated an emergency locator transmitter. The wreckage of the missing plane was only found 4 years later in 2015 by a private boating trip.
*Feb 14, 2018 - A private helicopter crashed around 5:20pm in a Canyon on Hualapai Nation killing 3 and injuring 4 passengers including the pilot. Cause of crash: Unknown.
*Sep 2, 2020 - A single engine Cessna crashed onto the roadway after the engine stopped mid-flight and the pilot was trying to make an emergency landing. The pilot survived with only minor injuries.