A man fell 4,000 feet to his death from a popular tourist attraction walkway in the Grand Canyon, according to authorities in Arizona.
The man, only identified as a 33-year-old male, was on the Skywalk at Grand Canyon West before he went over the edge, plunging into the canyon below, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue said in a Facebook post.
On June 5, a technical rope rescue team responded to the Skywalk – a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that extends 70 feet out over the canyon’s rim – after a report of someone going over the edge.
Two rope specialists “responded with (a) Kingman (Department of Public Safety) Ranger helicopter to the scene and determined the man was deceased,” the post read. The sheriff’s office said it is investigating the incident.
The man’s body was later transferred to the Hualapai Nation, a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in northwestern Arizona, the sheriff’s office reported.
Located outside of Grand Canyon National Park in the Grand Canyon West area, the Skywalk is managed by the Hualapai Tribe, according to the National Park Service. The Skywalk has seen more than 10 million visitors since 2007, according to the Grand Canyon West website.
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office and the Hualapai Nation Police Department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for a comment.
arod0291 on June 19th, 2023 at 02:48 UTC »
I was at the skywalk in November and I can confirm, there is no "falling". There's handrails and glass walls that are about 4ft tall. I asked our tour guide the morbid question about how often someone dies there and believe it or not, it happens about once a month.
urbanek2525 on June 18th, 2023 at 22:37 UTC »
My father worked as maintenence boss for Arches, Canyonlands and Bridges National Parks. I remember when nearby Dead Horse Point State Park put up a low wall to wall keep people safe from falling off the cliff. He said it was a bad move. IIRC, the next two years they had more people fall over than ever before.
He always said that the wall just gives an impression of safety which gets more people to take chances they otherwise wouldn't take. A naked cliff edge is generally safer because a much larger percentage of the population will recognize the danger.
Even so, there's always going to be someone who'll fall over, no matter what you do.
Agent7619 on June 18th, 2023 at 21:53 UTC »
Shit. That's ~10 seconds to think about what just happened before he hit.