The three Britons who were killed in a helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon died of multiple injuries, a coroner has said.
The crash that killed brothers Jason and Stuart Hill, 31 and 30, and the younger sibling’s partner Becky Dobson, 27, was an “accident”, Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office said on Wednesday.
Three British passengers and the pilot were taken to hospital following the incident at the Arizona tourist attraction on Saturday.
The three who died were originally from Worthing, West Sussex, and were on holiday in the US to celebrate Stuart Hill’s landmark birthday.
Jennifer Springfield, administration assistant at the medical examiner’s office, said: “The cause of death is going to be multiple injuries due to a helicopter crash and the manner is: accident.”
The preliminary findings were released ahead of full post-mortem examination reports which could take up to six weeks, she added.
The Rev David Hill and Sandra Hill, parents of solicitor Jason and car salesman Stuart, said they were “remarkable people” who will be “deeply missed by so many, many people”.
Ms Dobson was working as a receptionist at a vet’s and had ambitions of becoming a veterinary nurse.
Ellie Milward, 29, Jonathan Udall, 32, and Jennifer Barham, 39, were airlifted to University Medical Centre in Las Vegas, Nevada, along with pilot Scott Booth, 42, according to local reports.
The helicopter tour was run by Papillon and the crash is being investigated by the National Transport Safety Board.
A crowdfunding page on the JustGiving website has raised more than £14,000 for Mr Udall and Ms Milward, who it describes as having been on their honeymoon at the time of the tragedy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here