DCA95MA019

The charter flight was on a return tour trip after landing at the Grand Canyon National Park airport. No fueling or maintenance was performed on the airplane while it sat on the ground for three hours. Shortly after takeoff from runway 21, the pilot transmitted that he had a problem and was declaring an emergency. He then stated '...i'm single engine right now....' The airplane was observed to be 100-200 feet above the terrain at the time. It continued flying for about 6 minutes, turning onto a crosswind, downwind, and then a right base leg for runway 21 before colliding with trees about 2.5 miles northeast of the airport. The airport is located in terrain that slopes upward from south to north and west to east. Winds were gusting to 29 knots. The density altiude was 6,870 feet. Examination of the suspect left engine did not reveal any evidence of failures or malfunctions. The investigation revealed deficiencies in the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of the airline's maintenance program, and in the airline's extension of the time-in-service interval of the engines. The airline's AAIP does not require a maximum rated power check of the engines as required by the engine manufacturer's service instruction. In addition, the TBO of the engines had been extended from 1,800 to 2,400 hours.

On February 13, 1995, at 1536 MST, a Piper PA-31-350, N27245, operated by Las Vegas Airlines as flight 45, was destroyed during a forced landing approach at Tusayan, Arizona. The pilot and seven passengers received fatal injuries. Two passengers received serious injuries. The airplane, operating under 14 CFR Part 135 as an on demand charter flight, crashed about 2.5 miles northeast of the Grand Canyon Airport (GCN), Tusayan, Arizona. The flight was enroute to Las Vegas, Nevada. The pilot declared an emergency during the initial climb phase of flight after departure from runway 21.

The aircraft departed GCN at 1429 on a VFR company flight plan for Las Vegas, Nevada, as a return tour flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight. Weather was reported as multiple ceiling layers with 7 miles visibility in rain showers, winds out of 200 degrees at 23 knots gusting to 29 knots, temperature 42 degrees and dew point 37 degrees. According to the ATC records, the airplane declared an emergency due to a loss of engine power. The airplane was not equipped with a CVR or FDR.

After the aircraft landed from its sightseeing flight into the Grand Canyon area, it sat on the ground for 3 hours. No fuel or maintenance was performed on the aircraft before it departed. The operator was on an FAA Approved Airplane Inspection Program (AAIP) and maintenance records revealed that, on February 12, 1995, the engines were inspected in accordance with event number 6 and cycle number 1 of an 8 event 4 cycle maintenance program.