An unidentified 33-year-old fell more than 4,000 feet to his death earlier this month after going over the edge of the Grand Canyon’s Skywalk overlook. The incident, which took place on the morning of June 5, prompted an extensive search and rescue operation at the Arizona site. The local Mohave County Sheriff’s Office deployed ropes and a Kingman DPS Ranger helicopter to try and help the fallen man at around 9am.
However, the search and rescue teams quickly pronounced the man dead at the scene at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
The sheriff’s office has since launched an investigation into the death.
However, on Facebook, the search and rescue team ended their post about the man’s death with a link to a suicide prevention hotline.
The popular Skywalk overlook, which opened in 2007, is a horseshoe-shaped bridge with a glass walkway.
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It is operated by the local Hualapai Nation.
The statement from the search and rescue team read: “About 9am Monday (6/5) morning, the technical rope rescue team from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue responded to Grand Canyon West Skywalk for a 33-year-old male who went over the edge at the Sky Walk into the canyon.
“Two short-haul technicians (rope specialists) responded with Kingman DPS Ranger helicopter to the scene and determined the man was deceased.
“He was extracted to the Command Post and transferred to the Hualapai Nation. An investigation is ongoing.”
The Grand Canyon national park is ranked as the deadliest of all of America’s national parks, with the highest number of missing person reports and deaths.
This is despite the fact that the 1,900-square mile national park in Arizona is far smaller than its other counterparts, and welcomes millions fewer visitors than many of the other national park sites.
According to a Freedom of Information Act request, at least 56 people have been reported missing from Grand Canyon National Park since the beginning of 2018, and at least six people have been found dead.
Ken Phillip, retired chief of emergency services at the Grand Canyon, recently explained what made the national park so deadly.
He warned that official death tolls likely undercounted the actual number of deaths.
Mr Phillip told the New York Post: “On average, there are 12 fatalities within the canyon every year
Those can be from everything relating to heat stroke, lightning, drownings on the river, air crashes, suicides, accidental falls – all types of things.
“You have to realize just how difficult it can be to find a single human being in such a large area.
“When you’re looking for a person, you truly are looking for a needle in a haystack.”
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