December 10, 1991: Las Vegas Airlines, Inc., Piper PA-31-350 (N350MR) Mount Wilson, AZ
Braxton “Perry” Smallwood age 44, loved to fly. As a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, he flew F-111’s based in Turkey and F-16’s at nearby Nellis Air Force Base during his 20 year military career. After honorably retiring from duty and an 8-year hiatus from aviation, Smallwood was hired by Las Vegas Airlines in February 1991 to fly sightseeing air tours over the Grand Canyon.
Over the preceding ten months with Las Vegas Airlines, Smallwood would gain experience by either observing or flying to and from North Las Vegas Airport and Grand Canyon Airport. The tour itinerary was simple, air tour over, stopping at the canyon’s south rim to look over the edge, buy souvenirs, have lunch, and then a quick direct flight back to Las Vegas. Most tourists, exhausted from the long day, would sleep on the return leg.
On December 10, 1991, Captain Smallwood departed Grand Canyon Airport with four French tourists. The 3:00 PM return departure was made in relatively clear weather. The flight was uneventful as Smallwood approached Temple Bar Marina. Off the nose, a band of low clouds, heavy rain and low visibility replaced the canyon’s blue skies. Flying over Lake Mead and dodging clouds, Smallwood was trying to find a break in the weather, but It just wasn’t there.
With only 35 miles from the destination, the push for Smallwood to “press on” was no doubt with him. Compounding the pressure was the incentive to complete the flight as Las Vegas Airline’s policy was that pilots were only paid if they made it to the destination (An issue in the 1983 accident investigation of Las Vegas Airlines Flight 88).
Air Traffic Controllers in Las Vegas watching the Piper’s wandering and spotty radar track, cleared the flight into controlled airspace. Shortly thereafter, controllers noticed the flight turn south and descend towards the eastern ridge of Mount Wilson. Minutes passed with controller’s repeated and unsuccessful attempts to contact the flight. A missing aircraft alert was issued, but with low clouds, low visibility, and increasing darkness, the search would have to wait until morning. At daybreak the wreckage was located on the 4,800 foot level of Wilson Ridge. There were no survivors in this Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accident.
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Historical Summary:
To call this a Grand Canyon mishap is a stretch in geography, but in the days following the accident, the news media, hungry to fuel the ongoing air tour debate labeled the tragedy a “Grand Canyon Accident” ignoring the fact that it occurred forty miles west of the park’s boundaries. I will include it as Grand Canyon Aviation Archaeology to maintain the historical context.
Locating this accident site was difficult. The one large fragment remaining at the site blends in easily with the terrain and during certain times of the day with either light or shadow is completely invisible from the air. I was fortunate to have a private aircraft available when I spotted the wreckage on an overcast day. The crash site is located on a very steep and unstable topography of loose rock and boulders. Often the slope grade exceeded 65 degrees.
Unlike the wreckage of Las Vegas Airlines Flight 88 in Grand Canyon, most of the wreckage from LVA Flight 50 was recovered. Absent is the aircraft's tail section, most wing structures, landing gear, seats, and both engines. The remaining wreckage is comprised of a few fragments of fuselage and wing structure, engine components, cockpit components, and personal effects. An intense burn area and debris scatter was present during my visit.
Spending time examining the wreckage, sometimes it's easy to overlook the personal human toll of the accident.
These closed change purse clasps are a reminder of the passengers that lost their lives on this flight.
Burned coins found at the impact site not only included those from the United States, but also from France.
Part of a woman's wristwatch bracelet was located above the point of impact.
These sunglasses were almost intact except for a missing lens.
A seatbelt buckle tab that appears to be unused, but then again (fortunately) there were five empty passenger seats on LVA Flight 50.
Materials such as aluminum and steel last a long time at a crash site, but fragments of clothing such as this will be gone in a few more years.
Catastrophic aircraft accidents are inherently messy and much of the cleanup process varies depending on the remoteness of the site. It's not surprising to find discarded shredded and burned clothing articles.
A piece of aircraft cabin carpet appears to have survived the explosion and fire.
Other nylon fabric items such as this Reebok day-pack exhibited fire damage as well as damage from 20 years of exposure.
Sometimes at a crash site I will find or see something that is either strange or ironic.
At this weather related accident site, the weather section of this tattered page from a USAToday Newspaper caught my eye.
I was also surprised that a newspaper could have survived after two decades.
A passenger's mangled point and shoot Olympus camera was thrown over 100 feet from the impact site.
Not even a small 35mm film roll canister could survive the accident without damage.
Standing at the base of this rocky fifty foot cliff, I could see a fragment that looked like part of an instrument panel thrown on a ledge.
After partially climbing the cliff, I was able to see that the fragment was the aircraft's overhead fuel gauge panel.
The panel included quantity gauges for both the left and right fuel tanks. The center indicator was an ammeter with two press-to-test buttons for the alternators.
The small ledges of the cliff contained structural fragments of the aircraft as well as pieces of the aircraft's cockpit flight instruments and gauges.
The pilot's left side flight instrument panel was found torn and nearly folded in half from the impact.
On the center of the panel, a small broken ON-OFF switch labeled "Radar Altimeter" leads me to wonder if Capt. Smallwood was using this terrain alerting equipment and if he did, was the warning too late?
It appears that most of the cockpit or forward fuselage was projected above the impact point and came to rest at the base of a small cliff probably not more than 100 feet from the crest of the ridge.
The left corner of the pilot's instrument panel featured a limitation placard as well as space for a clock, windshield wiper controls, and a master switch for the aircraft's Flight Director instrument.
Based on the information from this fragment, the aircraft was equipped with Piper's AltiMatic V F/D-1 Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). At the time of development, it was one of the most advanced auto-pilot systems used in general aviation aircraft.
An assembled collection of aircraft pitot-static cockpit flight instrumentation found at the crash site.
The remains of the aircraft's standby magnetic whiskey-type liquid compass.
Flying at 4,800 feet, Smallwood was well into the 2,500 foot overcast of clouds covering Wilson Ridge. What is not known, and probably will never be known is how he was navigating.
One instrument that he may have been using was this King KNI-521 Navigation Indicator.
The KNI-521 Navigation Indicator was manufactured by King Radio Corp. It featured capabilities to navigate using VORs, Localyzer, and Glide Slope.
Again, the manufacture's product data tag was the only way to identify this and many other components from the crash site.
The remains of the aircraft's digital clock was located near some boulders. In this case, only the front cover plate was found from this Davtron M811B.
A portion of the elevator trim wheel and a blue knob used on one of two levers that control propeller RPM. These were the only components located at the site from the aircraft's pedestal and throttle quadrant.
A part from the Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) or quite possibly from the KNI-521 seen in previous photos.
It was far too destroyed to examine the indicator's display.
This electronic circuitry board probably came from either a communications radio or the aircraft's transponder.
Another shredded electronic navigation instrument.
Only the outer case housing remains from this Bonzer AI-74 Radar Altimeter Indicator.
Other components of the Bonzer Mark 10 Radar Altimeter System included the system processor unit.
This Dual RPM Tachometer Gauge was found with both indicator needles stopped at roughly 1600-1700 RPMs.
The reading is within the normal operating range, but the indication is probably lower than what was actually being used when the accident occurred.
During communications with Las Vegas Air Traffic Controllers, Captain Smallwood was using this Sigtronics S-45 Headset.
Only the left earcup and metal mic boom were located at the site.
Identical to aviation headsets today, the Sigtronics S-45 Headset provided noise canceling capabilities in high noise aircraft such as the Piper Chieftain.
Similar to the previous Las Vegas Airlines CFIT accident on August 17, 1983, this was another sad story of a pilot who pushed the limits of both weather and aircraft and lost.
IN MEMORY
Braxton “Perry” Smallwood
Ester Suid
Daisy Boukobza
Yardena Cohen Solal
Marie Sarfati
*THE END*
