Parents of Brit tourist killed in Grand Canyon chopper crash win £78m settlement
A US judge has approved a cash settlement to the parents of a Brit tourist who was among five killed - alongside his new wife - when a helicopter crashed and burst into flames in the Grand Canyon in 2015.
Under the £100million (£78 million) settlement approved in Las Vegas on Friday, the family of Jonathan Udall, 31, will receive 24.6 million dollars (£19.3 million) from the operator of the helicopter, Papillon Airways, and 75.4 million dollars (£59.3 million) from its French manufacturer, Airbus Helicopters SAS.
The family's lawyer, Gary C Robb, said they insisted the settlement terms be made public to raise awareness about aircraft fuel tanks they say are prone to rupturing. "The parents say the fuel tank was basically a fire bomb," he told the Associated Press.
Lawyers for the defendants, Eric Lyttle for Airbus Helicopters and William Katt for Papillon Airways, confirmed the terms, according to a transcript of a hearing in Clark County District Court, Nevada. Jonathan and Ellie Milward Udall, 29, boarded the helicopter from Boulder City, Nevada, with the three others who were killed. They were touring the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation, outside the boundaries of the national park, when the crash happened.
The family's lawsuit alleged the helicopter was unsafe because it lacked a crash-resistant fuel system which is now required for aircraft built after the Federal Aviation Administration issued new regulations in 2020. Mr Robb said some helicopter manufacturers have voluntarily replaced older fuel tanks but many have not.
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"The Udall family wants to shine a spotlight on this issue so the industry will take note and voluntarily seek to correct this public health issue. They don't want anyone else to go through what their son went through in an otherwise survivable accident - not a broken bone. He would have walked away."
The Airbus EC130 B4 crashed just before sunset in February 2018 in a section of the Grand Canyon where air tours are not as highly regulated as in the national park. Three of the British tourists on board were pronounced dead at the scene: veterinary receptionist Becky Dobson, 27, her boyfriend and car salesman Stuart Hill, 30, and Mr Hill's brother, 32-year-old lawyer Jason Hill. Jonathan Udall, of Southampton, and Ellie Udall later died of complications from burn injuries. His parents claimed in the lawsuit that their son could have survived if not for the post-fire crash.
A survivor, lower right, walks away from the scene of a deadly tour helicopter crash along the jagged rocks of the Grand Canyon, February 10, 2018 (AP)All of them were on the trip to celebrate Stuart Hill's birthday. Mr Robb said helicopter manufacturers have been aware the old-fashioned, hard-plastic fuel tanks are prone to rupturing during hard landings. "The fuel pours on to the passengers, then ignites. It's just horrible," he said. "The three people on the right side of the aircraft never escaped. They were completely burned in their seats."
America's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said turbulent winds were a probable cause of the loss of control and tail-rotor effectiveness before the hard landing outside the national park boundaries.
Its final accident report in January 2021 said the investigation found no evidence of mechanical problems with the helicopter but noted it lacked a crash-resistant fuel system. The helicopters in Papillon's fleet were not required to have them, but the company has since retrofitted the aircraft with fuel tanks that expand and seal on impact instead of rupturing.
The pilot, Scott Booth, fractured his lower left leg, and passenger Jennifer Barham had a spinal fracture. They also suffered severe burns but survived. Since then, both of Mr Booth's legs have been amputated.
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