Helicopter crash probe focuses on maintenance

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

Anyone with information about previous flights of the Sundance helicopter or with photographic or videotaped footage from a previous flight is asked to contact Wayne Pollack of the NTSB at (310) 380-5654.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are focusing on maintenance that was done on the main rotor of a Grand Canyon tour helicopter that crashed, killing a pilot and six tourists, the lead investigator said Tuesday.

In a related development, two people have told NTSB investigators that they saw the chopper act oddly before it descended into a steep valley after leaving Grand Canyon Airport shortly after noon on Saturday.

The NTSB is piecing together clues from fragments of the wreckage strewn in Descend Canyon, roughly 60 miles southeast of Las Vegas, from maintenance records and from interviews with anyone who had ridden in the helicopter or worked on it.

NTSB investigator Wayne Pollack said at a news conference Tuesday in Las Vegas that Sundance Helicopters mechanics had worked on the rotor the day before the crash.

Pollack said records on the aircraft showed that there appeared to be a problem with the speed at which the rotor turned.

NTSB investigators were planning to interview the company's mechanics today, Pollack said.

The exact cause of the crash, in which the helicopter burst into flames after hitting the steep canyon wall, is not known. Among the possibilities are a malfunction of the main rotor, a faulty gauge or pilot error, Pollack said.

"We would appreciate being contacted by other passengers who flew on the helicopter," Pollack said. "Since we have no witnesses (to the crash itself), photographic evidence would be the next best thing."

Videotapes or photographs might offer clues to the pilot's condition at the time of the crash, Pollack said.

One witness told the NTSB that the way the helicopter entered the canyon was "unusual," the investigator said. Normal helicopter flights drop immediately into Descend Canyon, according to the witness.

"The witness reported to us during an interview that the Sundance helicopter did not proceed directly from takeoff and enter the canyon," Pollack said.

For less than a minute the craft hovered in plain view before descending into the valley, the witness, who was familiar with the canyon and the helicopter, said.

Another witness told the NTSB that there was no radio call from the pilot before he descended into the canyon. Since there are no air traffic controllers in the canyon, Sundance and tour pilots radio their intent to descend, Pollack said. No one heard a message from the pilot, he said.

Both witnesses saw the helicopter in the air shortly before the crash, but not the crash itself.

The helicopter was on its way from the rim of the canyon to a helipad along the Colorado River on what was scheduled as a four- to six-minute ride, according to Sundance Helicopters, the Las Vegas-based company that operated the chopper. Sightseers expected to board a pontoon boat at the bottom of the canyon.

The pilot, Takashi Mezaki, 45, was a native of Japan living in California. He had been with Sundance for three years and had an airline transport license, a higher category than the license required for the touring company.

The other crash victims were Dr. Joseph Hanna, 52, and his wife, Nouhad, of Huntington, W.Va.; Massami Kato, 24, and Makiko Hatano, 23, both of Japan; Julia Hueyng, 33 and Wolf-Dieter Muller, 56, both of Germany.

There is no evidence so far that the engine experienced a catastrophic failure, Pollack said, although it will be taken apart and checked for wear and tear.

By the end of the week the NTSB plans to have an independent contractor, Air Transport, remove the wreckage from the canyon. Then investigators will reassemble the helicopter's parts in an Arizona location. Pollack said a final decision on where the craft's parts will go has not been reached.

The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily banned sight-seeing flights and other aircraft from flying over the crash scene, Pollack said.

Aircraft can still fly from the airport on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, but they cannot travel within a radius of two nautical miles in the Peach Springs area below 8,000 feet, he said.

Once the wreckage is removed, flights will resume, Pollack said.

Saturday's accident was the deadliest canyon tour crash since 1995, when eight people aboard a plane were killed while trying to return to Grand Canyon Airport.