Delwin and Tamara Chapman were in Las Vegas to renew their wedding vows after 25 years of marriage when a luxury helicopter tour of the twinkling Las Vegas Strip and the iconic Hoover Dam.

The sunset tour ended in a smoky crash Wednesday night, killing the Chapmans, a 31-year-old pilot and two other passengers in an accident that scattered helicopter debris across the River Mountains bordering Lake Mead.

Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said the bodies were not easily recognizable and identifying the victims would likely involve the use of DNA, fingerprint and dental records.

It is unclear what might have triggered the Nevada crash. The weather was mostly clear Wednesday near Lake Mead with a low temperature around 29 and winds around 5 mph. Investigators expect to be on the scene three to five days, said Mark Rosekind, with the National Transportation Safety Board.

He said the helicopter crashed near the bottom of a V-shaped canyon about 150 feet deep. Investigators had to climb ladders into the canyon to survey the scene.

Investigators have identified both tail rotor blades and parts of the engine, Rosekind said at a news conference Thursday night. There is evidence the main rotor blades remained attached to the rotor hub of the ill-fated aircraft, he said.

The crash was the latest involving tour helicopters across the country in recent years and comes amid concerns about the safety of the air tour industry. From 1994 through 2008, there were 75 commercial helicopter accidents in the United States, excluding air ambulances, resulting in 88 fatalities.

A helicopter that was using cables to install a seven-story Christmas tree in central Auckland, New Zealand, crashed down to the ground. The pilot, Greg Gribble, escaped virtually unharmed with only minor injuries, while no one else was hurt, despite the fact that workers were very close by under the helicopter when the incident occurred.

While the circumstances of the accident are not yet clear, it appears that the helicopter’s main rotor blades may have got caught in the cables. The family company that owns the chopper, Heli-Sika Helicopters, said: “Thanks everyone for their support and concerns, we are very lucky that Greg is all okay! Apart from being in Shock and having a very sore head!”

Their helicopter crashed in foul weather during a mission to airlift troops on a patrol mission to combat the forest encroachment and illegal logging in the national park.

The seven soldiers who were stranded in the park had walked to the crash site after the helicopter, unable to pick them up, eventually crashed. The helicopter wreckage was completely damaged and all five crew members and passengers were killed.

A forest protection unit from Kaeng Krachan National Park would be dispatched by helicopter to the nearest possible area and would travel by foot to the site to recover the bodies. The mission was expected to take at least one day.

The Marine Corps’ newest attack helicopter, the AH-1Z Cobra, achieved Initial Operating Capability ahead of schedule in February.

As part of the H-1 Upgrades Program, the AH-1Z replaces the currently fielded AH-1W. The AH-1Z will serve a primary role in assault support, offensive air support and air reconnaissance. Cobras will play a supporting role in anti-air warfare, electronic warfare, and control of aircraft and missiles.

The new Cobras feature 10,000 flight-hour airframes, a new four-bladed rotor system with semi-automatic blade fold of the new composite rotor blades, new performance matched transmissions, a new four-bladed tail rotor and drive system, upgraded landing gear, and pylon structural modifications. The Cobra also incorporates modernized, fully integrated cockpits/avionics that will reduce operator work load while improving situational awareness and safety.

The AH-1Z is equipped with two General Electric T700-GE-401 series engines and greatly increased lift capability and stores capacity, giving it a significantly greater ordnance payload for future growth potential. The primary weapon system is the Hellfire missile. It is fully shipboard compatible, and capable of operating from prepared or unprepared landing sites, day or night.

The Marine Corps will remanufacture 131 AH-1W helicopters into AH-1Z aircraft and build 58 new AH-1Zs. The projected inventory for the AH-1Z is 189 helicopters. Full operational capability, defined as when all AH-1Z maintenance and repair support, test equipment, and spares are in place to support active component force primary aircraft authorization, is expected to be achieved in 2020.

AH-1Z Cobras were first delivered in 2007 by prime contractor Bell Helicopter Textron Incorporated. The Department of Defense authorized the Cobra for full-rate production in November 2010. The first deployment of the AH-1Z is scheduled for later this year with a Marine Expeditionary Unit. This will be the first opportunity for the AH-1Z and UH-1Y to deploy together. The UH-1Y is already on its third rotation to Operation Enduring Freedom.

The pilot, Officer Steve Browning, 52, of Shirley, described in an interview how he struggled against winds gusting to 32 mph as his craft, a Bell 412 air/sea rescue helicopter, hovered atop Storm King Mountain just after 2 a.m. The five-member rescue team saved the unidentified cadets with the help of infrared and night-vision equipment.

The copter and its crew had to make two trips, hoisting first one cadet into the craft for the trip to the U.S. Military Academy’s parade field, then the second. The two, stranded on the mountain since late afternoon Saturday, were treated for weather-related conditions at the academy’s Keller Army Medical Center, according to a spokeswoman.

“The first thing we saw were two of them on top of a small rock with barely enough room for them,” he said adding the cadets were huddled together. He said he lowered the paramedic and served as Browning’s eyes while he steadied the chopper. If Almeida said “right,” Browning went right. If he said “left,” Browning would go left.

During the rescue, he said, the helicopter’s rotors were about 20 feet from the edge of the cliff in conditions he described as the “worst winds you could ever think of.”

The two cadets had gone rappelling alone on the mountain on a training exercise, on the west bank of the Hudson River, which can reach up to 1,360 feet above sea level, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Military Academy. NYPD said signals from one of the cadet’s cell phones were used to locate them.

The agencies said that the military helicopter crashed in daylight Tuesday attempting an emergency landing after engine failure in the province of Stavropol. A co-pilot was injured, the reports said.

The military routinely grounds aircraft after disasters.

The Mi-28 is nicknamed Night Hunter because of its sophisticated radar equipment that allows night missions, and is roughly analogous to the U.S. Boeing AH-64 Apache.

I have examined and test flown this newly developed AK 1-3 helicopter in Poltava Ukraine. Would like to compare notes with any one else who has also flown it. I rate the engineering design and build quality as outstanding. There are no castings used in its manufacture, but only CNC machined parts, including the main rotor gearbox casing. There is copious use of Kevlar for all blades and cabin and also plenty of Titanium for weight savings. It would be an injustice to comapre this helicopter to existing crop of kit-helicopters. The helicopter is powered by a 165 hp fuel injected EJ 25 Subaru. I would rate this craft between a R22 Beta II and the Schweitzer 269 C in terms of its weight lifting capacity, performance and cabin size.

Very smooth in flight, usefull load of 610 pounds, cruise speed of 85 knots, rate of climb of 1770 Ft/min, gross weight of 1430 pounds and 200 statute mile range at cruise speed + nice wide cabin at 4ft 5″.
I was very impressed, so I took on the agency for Southern Africa.

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The order affects Phase 1 and Phase 2. Schumer’s proposing to include Phase 1 in the House and Senate budgets.

“We haven’t gotten any commitments, but we are getting an understanding that cutting it completely makes no sense from a fiscal point of view,” said Schumer.

5 helicopters in Phase 1 are already built. Schumer says safer helicopters are needed because the President’s current one is 30 years old.

Attorneys hired by National Bank of Indianapolis filed the lawsuit in Marion Superior Court last week on behalf of Pearson’s two children, Gabrielle, 8, and Garrett, 10.

“These helicopter crashes have real human life consequences,” said Gary Robb, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney representing the plaintiffs. “I’m going to make sure these children do not have any kind of financial hardship over the death of their mother.”

Jefferson County Justice of the Peace identified three victims, whose bodies were recovered the day of the accident, as: the pilot, 43-year-old Joseph Laugelle Jr. of Quincy, Mass.; 23-year-old James Cody Smalts of Huntsville; and 51-year-old John Larry Conn of Katy.

The body of 26-year-old Jacob Matt of Jennings, La., was discovered Dec. 15 by volunteers patrolling a beach at the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge.