What happened
A Piper aircraft, registration N88LV, was operating as the second of five planes on a planned sightseeing tour departing from Las Vegas, Nevada. The initial segment of the flight, which took the aircraft over Lake Mead and the Las MU strip, proceeded without incident. However, as the flight progressed toward the Grand Canyon, the pilot encountered worsening weather near the Shivwits plateau.
Radio communications between the crew and other company pilots revealed that the pilot had encountered deteriorating conditions within the canyon and made the decision to abort the tour by climbing out of the area. Following this decision, the aircraft could no longer be reached via radio. On August 18, 1983, investigators located the wreckage on the western wall of a mesa inside the canyon at an elevation of 6,320 feet.
Prior to losing contact, the pilot reported being just short of Twin Peaks and had previously transmitted a position relative to the Peach VOR. A helicopter pilot operating approximately 14 miles north of the wreckage site noted that clouds were present at ground level, roughly 4,500 feet MSL. The impact resulted in 10 fatalities.
Findings
The investigation identified several contributing environmental factors, including rain, low ceilings, and mountainous terrain. The primary factor was the pilot's decision to continue flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) while operating under visual flight rules (VFR).