Grand Canyon West, Ariz. — Two people have died at the Grand Canyon in separate incidents this week. Officials said in the latest incident, a man stumbled over the edge of the rim while trying to take pictures. A helicopter lifted the body of the Hong Kong man from 1,000 feet below the rim of the Eagle Point observation area Thursday afternoon at Grand Canyon West. The site is a popular tourist destination on the Hualapai reservation outside the boundaries of the national park, spokesman David Leibowitz said. The man's identity has not been released. This 2007 file photo shows Skywalk hanging over the Grand Canyon. Ross D. Franklin / AP When the fall happened Thursday, there were few visitors at Eagle Point, a remote site best known for the Skywalk, a horse-shoe shaped glass bridge that juts out from the canyon wall, Leibowitz said. The rim has some ledges and outcroppings below but no barrier between tourists and the edge. The man, who was in his 50s, was taking photos when he stumbled and fell, Leibowitz said. Signs at Eagle Point warn tourists not to get too close to the edge. Leibowitz also stressed to CBS News that the man didn't fall from the Skywalk. The area closed for the day after the incident, Leibowitz said. He extended the tribe's prayers to the man's family. The Hualapai reservation includes a roughly 100-mile stretch of the Grand Canyon at its western edge. Meanwhile, authorities at Grand Canyon National Park — about 95 miles east — were working to identify a person believed to be a foreign national. A body was found Tuesday evening in a wooded area south of Grand Canyon Village away from the rim, the park said. The person's relatives haven't been notified, and the cause of death is unclear, park spokeswoman Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes said. The National Park Service and the local medical examiner's office are investigating. Last fall, a travel-blogging couple fell 800 feet to their deaths at Yosemite National Park. A photographer spotted them moments earlier at the edge of a cliff. A study found in a 7-year period, 259 people worldwide died while taking selfies. More than 70 percent were men, who researchers said took more risks to get a dramatic shot. "We always say that the zoom button is your friend, make sure you use that if you want to get a good photo of the canyon," Tech giants have promoted a culture of selfies and social media is full of daring photos taken at great risk. The rugged 277-mile-long Grand Canyon makes safety rails impossible in many areas. Grand Canyon National Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S., drawing nearly 6.4 million visitors last year. Grand Canyon West gets about 1 million visitors annually.<doc-sep>A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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(Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct Memorial Day weekend will bring rain and cool air for much of the East (CNN) — Two people died at the Grand Canyon after two separate incidents this week, including a tourist who was taking pictures. On Thursday, a man from Hong Kong was taking pictures at an overlook of the Grand Canyon when he slipped and fell, according to a spokesman for Grand Canyon West. A helicopter search began immediately, and a recovery operation is ongoing, according to David Leibowitz, a spokesman for the Eagle Point observation area, who added the man apparently was taking a selfie. The man was in his late 50s and was part of a tour group visiting the Eagle Point observation area at Grand Canyon West, according to Leibowitz, and he was about 100 yards from the Skywalk. Skywalk is a horseshoe-shaped glass platform 4,000 feet over the canyon. The Skywalk has glass balustrades and is designed for the safety of visitors who want unique photos of the canyon. Grand Canyon West is owned and operated by the Hualapai Tribe, according to its website. Eagle Point and nearby Skywalk were closed after the man fell, Leibowitz said, but Skywalk has since reopened. “The thoughts and prayers of every Grand Canyon West employee remain with the loved ones of this individual and the members of the tour group,” the tourist destination said in a statement. This was the second death at the Grand Canyon this week. On Tuesday, according to a statement by the National Park Service (NPS), rangers and special agents responded to a fatality of a visitor near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes, a spokeswoman for the park, said that individual did not fall over the rim. She said the victim was a foreign national and that the body was found in a forested area south of the South Rim Village area of the park. The statement said that the NPS and the Coconino County Medical Examiner are conducting an investigation. “On average, there about 12 fatalities in the park per year, but a small percentage of those are from fatal falls,” said Ceja-Cervantes. “The causes of those deaths range from heat, to drowning, to medical issues and more. High elevation plays a role in some of the fatalities.” CNN’s Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Three people have died after falling at the Grand Canyon over the last month, but officials say that the number of fatalities this year is not unusual. A total of five people have died inside the Grand Canyon National Park this year, compared to 17 people last year said park spokesperson Vanessa Ceja. A Hong Kong man in his 50s also died on March 28 after falling over the rim inside the Hualapai Reservation. The reservation is not part of the national park, but does encompass part of the canyon. About 12 people die inside the park each year, although many of the deaths are caused by heat or natural causes, Ceja said. Nearly 5 million people visit the park every year. John Quinley, a spokesperson for the park, said that there are typically fewer than five deaths in the park each year caused by falls. He said that park officials do not believe the number of deaths this year is unusual. “It may happen again or we might go seven months with zero. The numbers are so small, it’s hard to sort of see a trend,” Quinley said. He added that while the Grand Canyon National Park staff reviews park safety annually, officials are not currently planning to add any more safety precautions. “At this point, we’re not seeing any obvious change that’s necessary.” Quinley said that more aggressive safety measures – such as significantly adding to fencing in the park – is impractical given the size of the canyon. The formation is 277 miles long, and it can be approached at two sides. The park provides fencing at the most popular viewing sites and visitors are also offered safety information at park kiosks, from park staff and on the park’s website. A spate of deaths in recent weeks has drawn public attention to safety at the park. On April 23, a 69-year-old woman who had walked off the park trail died after falling about 200 feet from the canyon’s Southern Rim. And on April 3, a 67-year-old man from California died after falling 400 feet from the South Rim at Grand Canyon village. Roger Clark, the Grand Canyon Program Director for the Grand Canyon Trust, said that while accidents tend to generate public conversations about safety, it’s impossible to entirely eliminate danger in a place like the Grand Canyon. “Gravity is part of the package,” said Clark. “There’s places like that- whether you’re at the Gand Canyon or walking the street- where one foot can mean the difference between life and death.” Get The Brief. 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Contact us at letters@time.com.<doc-sep>A tourist fell to his death in Grand Canyon National Park on Wednesday morning, officials said, the third person to die at the canyon in the past eight days. The 67-year-old man fell about 400 feet from the canyon's South Rim, east of the Yavapai Geology Museum, just before noon, according to the National Park Service. Authorities did not say how the man fell. The park's helicopter was able to recover the man's body. It is the second time in six days a person has plunged to their death at the Grand Canyon, prompting a warning from park officials. "Grand Canyon National Park staff encourages all visitors to have a safe visit by staying on designated trails and walkways, always keeping a safe distance from the edge of the rim and staying behind railings and fences at overlooks," they said in a release. This is the first person to fall to their death inside Grand Canyon National Park this year, but a tourist from Hong Kong died falling into the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation, outside the boundaries of the park, on March 28. That death happened near the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped outlook over a 1,000-foot cliff face, which closed for a day after the death. The man was taking a photo at the time, officials said. Two days before that man fell to his death, another person was mysteriously found dead in a wooded area of the national park. The body was found near a hiking trail, not the rim of the canyon, south of Grand Canyon Village, authorities said. Seventeen people fell to their death at Grand Canyon National Park last year, according to The Associated Press.<doc-sep>
The man has been identified as a tourist from Hong Kong. Two people have died in separate incidents at the Grand Canyon this week, including a tourist who fell 1,000 feet into the canyon while attempting to take photos. The man fell early Thursday near Eagle Point at Grand Canyon West, an area that is also home to the popular Skywalk attraction. His body was recovered by helicopter later in the day and will be sent to a local medical examiner. The man was identified as a visitor from Hong Kong in his 50s, who was part of a tour group visiting the area. His name has not been released, Grand Canyon West spokesman David Leibowitz said, according to the Associated Press. "The thoughts and prayers of every Grand Canyon West employee remain with the loved ones of this individual and the members of the tour group," the park said in a statement. The Skywalk is a U-shaped, glass-bottomed bridge that juts over the rim of the canyon, located on the Hualapai Tribe's reservation outside of the National Park. In a separate incident, a body identified only as that of a foreign national was found Thursday in a wooded area south of Grand Canyon village, Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes told The Associated Press. The cause of the person’s death is unclear and their relatives have not been notified. The National Park Service and the local medical examiner's office are investigating the death. On average, the Grand Canyon sees two to three deaths each year from falls over the rim, park spokeswoman Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski told a website dedicated to the park. The Grand Canyon attracts around 6.4 million visitors each year, making it one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the U.S.