A Colorado pilot is facing charges after federal officials say he illegally landed a helicopter on a lakeshore in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Park rangers on June 24 received a tip that someone had landed a helicopter on the west shore of Jackson Lake inside the park, and they found the pilot, Peter Smith, of Gunnison, and a companion picnicking along the lake near the helicopter, according to a Monday statement from the national park.
Smith, the owner of West Elk Air in Gunnison, told the Associated Press that bad weather in the area forced him to land the helicopter, and his passenger was ill.
“We were trying to cross over the Tetons and we couldn’t, so we landed,” he told The Associated Press. “We were not having a picnic. We were landing.”
He declined to tell the AP where they were coming from and going and if it was a hired or personal flight.
West Elk Air’s website was not working Tuesday morning.
This is not the first time Smith has been charged with violations at a national park.
In February, he was cited for flying a fixed-wing aircraft below a safe altitude in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in western Colorado and paid a $530 fine.
In the Grand Teton incident, he is charged with two violations of “operating or using aircraft on lands or waters other than at locations designated pursuant to special regulations” and “use of aircraft shall be in accordance with regulations of the FAA,” the news release states.
Each violation is a Class B misdemeanor that could include up to a $5,000 fine and/or six months in jail. Smith is scheduled to appear in federal court in Jackson, Wyoming, in August.
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