Grand Canyon Tears

In 1956, the Grand Canyon in Arizona was the site of the deadliest commercial aviation disaster in history at the time. On the morning of June 30,... more

by Jon Burch Photography

Title

Grand Canyon Tears

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture & Enhancement

Description

In 1956, the Grand Canyon in Arizona was the site of the deadliest commercial aviation disaster in history at the time. On the morning of June 30, 1956, a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation and a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 departed Los Angeles International Airport within three minutes of one another on eastbound transcontinental flights. Approximately 90 minutes later, the two propeller-driven airliners collided above the canyon while both were flying in uncontrolled airspace.

The wreckage of both planes fell into the eastern portion of the canyon, on Temple and Chuar Buttes, near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. The disaster killed all 128 passengers and crew members aboard both planes.

This accident led to the institution of high-altitude airways and direct radar observation of aircraft by en route ground controllers.

About 770 deaths have occurred in the Grand Canyon between the middle 1800's and 2015. Of the fatalities that occurred from 1869 to 2001, some were as follows: 53 resulted from falls; 65 were attributable to environmental causes, including heat stroke, cardiac arrest, dehydration, and hypothermia; 7 were caught in flash floods; 79 were drowned in the Colorado River; 242 perished in airplane and helicopter crashes 25 died in freak errors and accidents, including lightning strikes and rock falls; and 23 were the victims of homicides.

The Grand Canyon has been used as a means of suicide in some of the most ludicrous of ways. Case in point: After watching the film Thelma and Louise more than 50 times, a 36-year-old woman attempted to drive her car off the rim of the canyon. The car’s suspension, however, got caught on an outcropping of rock, hindering her plans. Not to be deterred, she then leaped over the edge of the cliff, only to fall onto a boulder 20 feet below. Bloodied and bruised, the woman managed to crawl to the edge and roll off, falling to her death.

Similar cases of people driving their vehicles off the rim of the canyon are surprisingly not that uncommon. One such incident occurred in 2009, when a 57-year-old man checked out of the El Tovar Hotel and then drove his car over the edge of the South Rim.

Perhaps the most bizarre suicide happened in 2004, when a man in his twenties jumped out of a helicopter while on a scenic tour. The other passengers, who were left in “total and utter disbelief,” described the man as quiet and normal only moments before leaping into the deepest part of the canyon, 4,000 feet below.

One of the first recorded suicides in national park history was that of a 27-year-old woman in Yellowstone who apparently killed herself with an overdose of morphine in 1884, just 12 years after the national park was created, according to the Yellowstone historian.

Some digital effects were applied to the original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the FAA watermark

Image copyright 2018 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

September 8th, 2018