British dad whose son died in Grand Canyon helicopter crash warns there may be 8,000 ‘flying bombs’ in US
A father, who is to receive a $100m (£78m) settlement after his son died in a helicopter crash, has told Sky News there could be around 8,000 “flying bombs” in the US due to the danger of fuel tanks that might rupture.
British tourist Jonathan Udall, 31, suffered burns to over 90% of his body after the aircraft burst into flames in the Grand Canyon.
He died after spending 12 days in hospital following the tragedy that occurred when the Airbus EC130 B4 came down shortly before sunset on 10 February 2018.
His newlywed wife Ellie Udall, 29, brothers Stuart and Jason Hill, 30 and 32, and Stuart’s 27-year-old girlfriend Becky Dobson, also died in the crash.
Mr Udall’s parents claimed in a wrongful death lawsuit that their son, originally from Southampton, could have survived if it was not for the post-crash fire – caused by the helicopter’s fuel tank that they claim was prone to rupturing.
Mr Udall’s father, Philip, said his son and daughter-in-law “were perfect, they had it all”.
“John was a very successful businessman in the financial world”, working as the southeast manager for Yorkshire Building Society and “he had a blossoming career,” said Mr Udall. Ellie also worked for the same company and “she was incredible”.
He said the family used to have lots of meals together but there was now a “huge hole where they used to sit”.
“There’s nobody in it. There will forever be two seats empty.”
Jonathan and Ellie Udall were two of five people who died in the tragedy
Mr Udall now wants all helicopters in the US to be fitted with crash-resistant fuel systems.
He said that if this doesn’t happen, other people “are going to die” and “it could be your children next”.
The helicopter in which his son lost his life did not have such a system, and he said he had it on “good authority” that if it had been fitted with one, “they [John and Ellie] would have got out”.
“The system won’t completely prevent fire. What it does do is buy time to get out,” he added.
Philip Udall said: “There is a loophole in the law [in the US] that allows helicopters to fly without a crash-resistant fuel system – so basically it’s a flying bomb.”
“And that’s our lawyer’s words. It’s a plastic container about as good as a milk bottle, that you’ve got the fuel in. When the helicopter goes down it just fractures and the fuel is out. This has been going on since 1994.”
Mr Udall said he believes there are around 170 crashes that have happened which were considered to be survivable “and it’s all not survivable because of these fuel tanks”.
He said anyone thinking of getting into a helicopter should ask the following question: “Does this helicopter have a crash-resistant fuel system?”
Jonathan Udall’s father, Philip, has spoken to Sky News
He said “if the answer is no, I would think very carefully about whether I got into it or not”.
“The Grand Canyon is a rough place. There are mountains, valleys. It’s a very turbulent environment.”
The company which ran the tragic flight in which Jonathan and Ellie later died has since fitted all its aircraft with crash-resistant fuel systems.
What does the law say in America?
Mr Udall stated a law was introduced in the US in 1994 which said all helicopters should have such systems, except ones that were designed in the 1970s but were then modified.
“They didn’t need to have [these systems] so manufacturers took advantage of it, [it was] cheaper.”
“There could be something like 8,000 helicopters flying around looking for somewhere to explode.”
He also said the law was changed in recent years which ruled all newly-built helicopters have to have crash-resistant fuel systems.
“We are looking at what we can do because there are still people climbing into helicopters not aware of the fact that what they are sitting on, because the fuel tank is just behind your head,” Mr Udall warned.
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Video shows survivor fleeing wreckage
Payout ‘means nothing to us’
The £78m payout he received over his son’s death “means nothing to us”, he added.
“What it means is we have a resource we can call on that we can use, that we can try and get the situation improved. That was the reason for doing it.”
He said he had already provided equipment to burns units and was getting involved with charities.
“The most important thing is to try to move the clock on so there are no flying bombs.”
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Under the settlement approved by a US judge in Clark County, Nevada, on Friday, Philip and Marlene Udall, will receive $24.6m (£19.3m) from the helicopter operator, Papillon Airways, and $75.4m (£59.3m) from its French manufacturer, Airbus Helicopters SAS.
A 2021 report by the National Transportation Safety Board report in the US concluded that a probable cause for the helicopter crash was the pilot losing control due to tailwind conditions.
The pilot, Scott Booth, told police that the aircraft had encountered a “violent gust of wind” and began to spin.
He fractured his lower left leg, and passenger Jennifer Barham had a spinal fracture in the crash. They also suffered severe burns but survived.
Since then, both of Mr Booth’s legs have been amputated.
American Senator Ted Cruz has broken ranks with fellow US conservatives and
hit out at talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, saying it was “mafioso” behaviour.
Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised after it pulled the long-standing host of Jimmy Kimmel Live following comments in his show about the alleged gunman charged with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Kimmel implied the suspect was a Maga Republican, despite the man’s mother telling police he had “started to lean more to the left”.
As a result, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney and local broadcasters with investigations and regulatory action if they aired Kimmel’s show – which led to dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC pulling it.
US President Donald Trump, who appointed Carr, lauded the decision.
But Mr Cruz criticised the threats as “dangerous as hell”.
“I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” he said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. “That’s right out of
a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here.
“It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
Senator Ted Cruz. Pic: AP
Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk?
The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Mr Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”
Mr Trump fired back, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Mr Cruz – one of the most
powerful Republicans in Congress – and calling Mr Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”
Demonstrations against his suspension have sprung up. Pic: AP
The Texas senator’s remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of the president’s own party publicly
criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free-speech rights and Mr Trump’s threatened crackdowns.
Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.
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US talk show titans speak out
Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts have rallied around him, as did former US president Barack Obama, who wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
Conservative activists had been angered by Kimmel’s comments on his show that they were using the assassination to score “political points”.
Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead on 10 September as he took part in a public debate at a college campus in Utah .
Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder, weapon, and obstruction of justice offences.
US talk show host Stephen Colbert has condemned the cancellation of fellow late-night star Jimmy Kimmel as a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”, as America’s top late night presenters came out fighting.
He used the opening of Thursday night’s edition of his Late Show to address the pulling of Jimmy Kimmel Live over comments made about the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel used his show earlier this week to accuse the Trump administration and its allies of “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, with the president among those to pin it on left-wing extremism.
The move by Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised, with the network accused of kowtowing to President Donald Trump, who celebrated the decision.
Also airing on Thursday night, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, appeared in a garish gold set, in parody of Mr Trump’s redesign of the White House, to tell viewers the episode would be “another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show”.
Stewart, playing the role of an over-the-top, politically obsequious TV host under authoritarian rule, lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of US cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight crime.
“Coming to you tonight from the real […] crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no-one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” he said.
He then introduced his guest – Maria Ressa, a journalist and author of the book How To Stand Up To A Dictator.
Jon Stewart. Pic: Associated Press
Over at The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon told his audience he was “not sure what was going on” but that Kimmel is “a decent funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back”.
Fallon then promised viewers that in spite of people being “worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we will be censored”, he was going to cover the president’s recent trip to the UK “just like I normally would”.
He was then replaced by a voiceover describing Mr Trump as “incredibly handsome” and “making America great again”.
Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s Tonight Show. Pic: The Tonight Show X
Seth Meyers also joined the fray.
“Donald Trump is on his way back from a trip to the UK,” he said at the top of his show Late Night, “while back here at home, his administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech… and completely unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have always admired and respected Mr Trump.
“I have always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great president, and an even better golfer.”
Kimmel’s removal from the show he has hosted for two decades led to criticism that free speech was under attack.
But speaking on his visit to Britain, Donald Trump claimed he was suspended “because he had bad ratings”.
It came after fellow late-night host Colbert saw his programme cancelled earlier this year, which fans claimed was also down to his criticism of Mr Trump, who has since railed against Kimmel, Meyers, and Fallon.
He has posted on Truth Social that they should all be cancelled.
Jimmy Kimmel hosting last year’s Oscars. Pic: AP
Figures from both the worlds of entertainment and politics lined up to lament ABC’s removal of Kimmel.
Chat show doyenne David Letterman said people should not be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what he called “an authoritarian” president.
During an appearance at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York on Thursday night, he added: “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.
“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media.”
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
Former US president Barack Obama wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
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