Copter crash survivor out of LV hospital

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002 | 10:48 a.m.

The lone survivor of a fiery helicopter crash last year left Las Vegas this morning, five months after a tour to the Grand Canyon that was part of a family vacation ended in her husband's death and her injury.

Chana Daskal, a 25-year-old mother of two, suffered massive injuries including burns over 80 percent of her body in the Aug. 10 crash that killed David Daskal, four other New York tourists and the Henderson pilot.

Daskal thanked all of those who helped save her life, from the two men who pulled her out of the burning wreckage to the University Medical Center doctors and hospital staff who treated her to those who prayed for her.

"I want to thank my parents and my family and some very special friends ... without them I would not have had the strength to survive everything that has happened to me since the day of the helicopter crash," Daskal said in a written statement.

Daskal left this morning on a medical jet for a New York-area hospital. The plane is equipped with a medical staff and is essentially a "flying hospital room," Rick Plummer, a UMC spokesman, said.

The Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopter tour craft crashed about 2:30 p.m. Aug. 10 near Meadview, Ariz., about 60 miles east of Las Vegas, into the side of a sloped mountainous area.

Rescuers found most of the passengers and the pilot dead. Daskal was found smoldering but still alive.

Daskal told paramedics, "It got quiet and fell from the sky," according the National Transpiration Safety Board preliminary report.

When asked "Was the engine running?" Daskal responded "No, not at the end."

The cause of the accident is still under investigation. Jeff Rich, the NTSB investigator in charge of the probe, could not be reached this morning but has recently said the investigation will take several months until a cause is determined.

In October attorneys for Daskal filed a lawsuit against the estate of Kevin Innocenti, the pilot of the helicopter, Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters and two helicopter and engine parts makers.

The lawsuits alleges an engine malfunction and possibly pilot error caused the crash.

Innocenti had flown for Papillon for about a year and made the flight over the Grand Canyon likely hundreds of times, as company officials said pilots often make the flight three times a day.

Innocenti's pilot's license was in good standing and he had no record or accidents or discipline, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

The bodies of the tourists who died in the crash were flown back to New York days after the crash.

Hundreds of people turned out for the funerals of David Daskal, Avi and Barbara Wajsbaum, Shiya Lichtenstein and Arie Fastag.