Yellowstone worker falls to death first day on job

By msnbc.com staff and news services

CODY, Wyoming -- Search teams on Friday recovered the body of an 18-year-old woman who plunged 400 feet to her death on the first day of her job at Yellowstone National Park when a rocky ledge overlooking a canyon gave way beneath her, officials said.

The woman, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of her family, arrived in the park on Thursday to begin a new job with a private concessions company in Yellowstone, park spokesman Dan Hottle said.

---

She and three others went hiking early that evening along the edge of a popular canyon called the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, on the North Rim trail, Montana's KAJ18 station reported.

The group had ventured onto an off-trail promontory at a spot called Inspiration Point when the accident happened.

At national parks, where are all the young people?

A member of the hiking party used a cellphone to alert park authorities. Yellowstone Park rangers said they responded to the 911 call around 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) on Thursday, KAJ18 reported.

A rescue team that was dispatched to the scene later reported spotting a badly mangled figure about 400 feet below the rim of the 1,500-foot-deep canyon, officials said.

Environmental woes imperil America's national parks

Rescuers concluded the woman could not have survived the fall. With nightfall advancing, search teams returned on Friday and retrieved the body in a three-hour helicopter operation.

Hottle said another member of the hiking party narrowly averted tumbling down the cliff.

"The 18-year-old was sitting on a ledge when the rock fell away. Someone was standing right behind her and, miraculously, didn't fall," he said.

According to Denver's ABC 7 News, friends of the woman said she was from Russia. This could not be immediately verified.

What's behind all the deaths at Yosemite?

Fatal falls are relatively rare at Yellowstone, accounting for fewer than a dozen deaths - among millions of visitors - over the past 30 years.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

phoenix coyotes bruce irvin charlie st cloud celtics josh hamilton nba playoffs rosario dawson