Officials identified the victim as Aaron Benjamin, an experienced kayaker from Idaho

Aaron Benjamin

Aaron Benjamin.Credit : Aaron Benjamin/Facebook

A 30-year-old man was killed while whitewater kayaking in Grand Canyon National Park, according to park officials.

Aaron Benjamin, 30, of Post Falls, Idaho, died at approximately 11:15 a.m. local time on Feb. 19 while rafting in the Grand Canyon on a noncommercial river trip near Hance Rapid on the Colorado River, national park officials confirmed in a news release on Monday, Feb. 23.

After entering the river at the top of Hance Rapid at Colorado River Mile 77, the boater was separated from his group, per officials.

Witnesses say his raft was caught in a “hole” when he fell into the 40-degree water and did not immediately surface.

Alan DeKalb, 67, was with Benjamin as a member of a private 10-person river trip on the day of the incident, and spoke with Outside about the moments leading up to Benjamin’s death.

Boater Fatality on the Colorado River at Hance Rapid

Boater Fatality on the Colorado River at Hance Rapid.NPS

“Nobody actually saw him go over,” he told the outlet. “People in our group could just see Aaron’s empty boat stuck up there.”

DeKalb detailed how the group attempted to perform life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better group to do the resuscitation. We followed our Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) protocols, we did 20 minutes of CPR, but eventually we had to pronounce him dead,” he said.

DeKalb noted that he did not know Benjamin before the accident, but that he had spoken with the kayaker’s parents following his death.

“He grew up on the river,” DeKalb told Outside. “His parents have done the Grand Canyon multiple times, and Aaron had done it multiple times. Before he could walk, they put a pair of oars in his hands.”

In a Facebook post, Grand Canyon historian Tom Martin described Benjamin as a “kind, gentle giant of a man,” according to local outlet 12News.

The National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner are investigating Benjamin’s death. No further information is available at this time, according to the news release.