Tourist's parents file lawsuit in Grand Canyon copter crash

 The parents of a British tourist who died after the Grand Canyon sightseeing helicopter he was in crashed have filed the first wrongful death lawsuit related to last month's crash.

The complaint filed Friday in Clark County District Court in Nevada accused helicopter owner Papillon Airways and manufacturer Airbus of negligence in failing to equip the helicopter with a crash-resistant fuel system.

The systems have fuel tanks that expand, rather than rupture, on impact and self-sealing components to keep fuel from spreading. They are meant to prevent aircraft from catching fire and lessen the chance that people on board get burned.

Jonathan Udall, of Southampton, was burned on more than 95 percent of his body in the crash and died Feb. 22 in a Las Vegas trauma center — 10 days after the helicopter crashed at the bottom of the canyon on the Hualapai reservation outside the national park.

His parents, Philip and Marlene Udall, claimed in the lawsuit that their son could have survived if not for the post-crash fire and want to prevent others from suffering deadly burns, their attorney, Gary C. Robb, told The Associated Press. The lawsuit seeks more than $195,000, other unspecified damages, attorneys' fees and a jury trial.



Source: abcnews.go

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