Final report quotes high density altitude and unrecoverable descent

The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report on the August 10, 2001 crash during a Grand Canyon tour of an Eurocopter AS350 helicopter operated by Papillon Airways, Inc. The agency has determined that the most probable cause of the crash was pilot error, due to the decision to fly in a flight regime, and at a high density altitude, which put the aircraft into an unrecoverable descent.

The accident killed six tourists and the pilot, and badly injured a seventh. Papillon president and CEO Brenda Halverson released a statement that the company disputes the report's findings, and will see more meetings with the investigators.

"Papillon has been a party to this accident investigation and our preliminary conclusions are not consistent with those of the NTSB," she said.

The company has been sued by several parties as a result of this accident. One of the lawsuits was filed by the sole survivor, a female passenger who was left paralyzed from the waist down and had to have her right foot and left leg amputated.

FMI: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=LAX01MA272&rpt=fi