Bodies of helicopter crash victims recovered

LAS VEGAS – Rescue crews completed the difficult process of recovering bodies Thursday from a remote canyon outside Las Vegas after the crash of a tour helicopter belonging to a company with repeated aviation violations.

Sundance Helicopters of Las Vegas had at least five accidents and was the subject of 10 federal enforcement actions since 1994. It charted a luxury sunset tour of the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam on Wednesday that killed a 31-year-old pilot and his four passengers.

Mark Rosekind, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said the helicopter crashed near the bottom of a V-shaped canyon about 150 feet deep in the River Mountains bordering Lake Mead.

Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said he could not release the names of the dead until medical examiners make identifications.

In Kansas, a relative of two of the passengers on board identified them as Delwin and Tamara Chapman, a couple from the town of Utica celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. Ron Solze, whose son is married to one of the Chapmans’ four daughters, said the couple from western Kansas went to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary and renew their wedding vows.

Sundance Helicopters identified the pilot as Landon Nield, who was married in a Las Vegas church in June.

The crash was the latest involving tour helicopters across the country in recent years and comes amid concerns about the safety of the air tour industry. From 1994 through 2008, there were 75 commercial helicopter accidents in the U.S., excluding air ambulances, resulting in 88 fatalities.

It’s unclear what might have caused the Nevada crash.