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Wreckage recovered from ocean
By Lester Chang - The Garden Island
Leaders with the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation and Administration launched a detailed investigation into a fatal helicopter crash off Ha'ena Point Friday following the salvaging of most of the wreckage by Sunday.
Passengers aboard the Heli USA tour helicopter told investigators they ran into a "wall of rain before the crash," fueling speculation that bad weather could have helped bring the aircraft down.
But determining the cause of the accident could take months as investigators must reconstruct the helicopter, go over the Heli USA's operating policies and procedures, conduct more interviews and make assessments, NTBS investigators Debra Eckrote and Nicole Charnon told reporters at a briefing at the Lihu'e Airport. Weather reports also have to be analyzed.
"It will be several months before the (NTSB) board is going to issue a probable cause," Eckrote said.
A Heli USA Airways A-Star helicopter crashed into waters about a half mile from shore around 2:30 p.m. Friday. Three passengers died in or after the crash, and three survivors swam to shore.
Two of the survivors, whose names were not released, are a husband and wife, and they were trying to book a plane flight back to Wisconsin, their home state, on Sunday, Charnon said.
The pilot, the other survivor, was traumatized by the incident, according to USA Airways Vice President John Power, and has not returned to flying because he is assisting with the investigation by the authorities.
The names of the passengers were not released because the next-of-kin of those who died have not been notified, according to Mary Daubert, the public information officer for Kaua'i County.
Eckrote, the lead investigator in the crash from the NTSB's regional office in Seattle, Wash., and Charnon, an air safety investigator with NTSB southwest regional office, said salvage teams had recovered the transmission and two main rotor blades of the helicopter by Sunday afternoon.
One of the blades had been fractured in the impact, and had been spotted by a county lifeguard who was at the scene after the helicopter crash.
The NTSB officials said they expected the salvaging operations to be smooth because of the good weather Sunday, and that they expected the cockpit, the fuselage, tail boom and the tail rotor to be gathered up before sundown.
By late Sunday afternoon though, those pieces also had been collected, boosted by the help of three commercial divers who had been hired to help with the recovery of the helicopter parts.
A Huey US 1 commercial helicopter owned by Pacific Helicopters on Maui was hired to haul debris from 30 feet of water about a half mile off-shore from Ha‘ena Point and Ha‘ena Beach Park.
Helicopter company workers involved with the salvaging began their work on Sunday morning and hauled debris to Waioli Park mauka of Hanalei Bay.
A Kauai Commercial flatbed truck then trucked the debris to a hangar at the Lihue Airport, where reconstruction and analysis of the helicopter will begin to help determine the cause of the accident, Eckrote said.
Investigators have not ruled out bad weather as a possible cause, she said.
In interviewing the two surviving passengers and the pilot on Saturday, Charnon noted that "one passenger said they were flying into "a wall of rain" before the helicopter went down.
"The helicopter flew in there, and they could see, and all of a sudden, they were near the water," she said.
She said the pilot kept track of the distance between the helicopter and the shoreline "through the entire event and was in the process of turning around, to reverse direction from this weather system, when they got into a rapid sink rate, and ended hitting the water."
Eckrote said that once the passengers hit the water, they experienced a torrential downpour."
"The pilot is saying the same thing and indicating there was thunder and lightning and tor-rential rain after they got into the water and surfaced," Eckrote said.
A weather study is to be done in Washington D.C. for the crash, Eckrote said, adding that while "we do consider weather as a factor, we don't know how much of a factor yet."
"Both the passengers and the pilot reported weather, and we have some witnesses that are indicating the same," Eckrote said.
She said malfunctioning equipment also hasn't been ruled out as a possible cause for the accident.
"The pilot was indicating something right at the very end (before the helicopter hit the water), low rotor rpm," Eckrote said.
She said investigators will look "at the engine, the systems and the airframe to confirm whether engine malfunction was a possible cause."
The pilot reported that the helicopter was operating smoothy during earlier flights in the day and prior to it going down, Charnon said.
The pilot, whose identity was not released, has worked for Heli USA for six to seven weeks, and had flown for law enforcement agencies in Houston and electronic media companies in the Mainland, Charnon said.
Power, vice president of Heli USA, who attended the press briefing, said the company's priority at this point is to tend to the needs of the survivors and the families.
"We wanted to offer our sincerest condolences, which go out to all the families of the passengers on board that helicopter," he said.
He also said, "our management team on Kaua‘i, including the president, is working very closely to assist those family members in their repatriation of their homes to the respective locations in the U.S," he said. "Obviously, that is basically our position right now."
Power said the three deaths in Friday's helicopter crash were the first in the company's 16 years of operation.
The company has flown more than a million miles since that time, and "it was a very sad day for us on Friday when the situation occurred," Power said.
He thanked the Navy, the Coast Guard, Kaua‘i County police officers, firefighters, lifeguards and residents for the help they provided to the crash victims and survivors.
Out of respect for those who died, the Kaua‘i operations, which now has four helicopters, closed on Saturday, Power said.
In the helicopter crash, three passengers died and three made it to shore safely. One of the survivors swam to shore on his own, and two others caught rides from Kaua‘i‘ Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau lifeguards aboard personal water craft.
Passengers aboard the Heli USA tour helicopter told investigators they ran into a "wall of rain before the crash," fueling speculation that bad weather could have helped bring the aircraft down.
But determining the cause of the accident could take months as investigators must reconstruct the helicopter, go over the Heli USA's operating policies and procedures, conduct more interviews and make assessments, NTBS investigators Debra Eckrote and Nicole Charnon told reporters at a briefing at the Lihu'e Airport. Weather reports also have to be analyzed.
"It will be several months before the (NTSB) board is going to issue a probable cause," Eckrote said.
A Heli USA Airways A-Star helicopter crashed into waters about a half mile from shore around 2:30 p.m. Friday. Three passengers died in or after the crash, and three survivors swam to shore.
Two of the survivors, whose names were not released, are a husband and wife, and they were trying to book a plane flight back to Wisconsin, their home state, on Sunday, Charnon said.
The pilot, the other survivor, was traumatized by the incident, according to USA Airways Vice President John Power, and has not returned to flying because he is assisting with the investigation by the authorities.
The names of the passengers were not released because the next-of-kin of those who died have not been notified, according to Mary Daubert, the public information officer for Kaua'i County.
Eckrote, the lead investigator in the crash from the NTSB's regional office in Seattle, Wash., and Charnon, an air safety investigator with NTSB southwest regional office, said salvage teams had recovered the transmission and two main rotor blades of the helicopter by Sunday afternoon.
One of the blades had been fractured in the impact, and had been spotted by a county lifeguard who was at the scene after the helicopter crash.
The NTSB officials said they expected the salvaging operations to be smooth because of the good weather Sunday, and that they expected the cockpit, the fuselage, tail boom and the tail rotor to be gathered up before sundown.
By late Sunday afternoon though, those pieces also had been collected, boosted by the help of three commercial divers who had been hired to help with the recovery of the helicopter parts.
A Huey US 1 commercial helicopter owned by Pacific Helicopters on Maui was hired to haul debris from 30 feet of water about a half mile off-shore from Ha‘ena Point and Ha‘ena Beach Park.
Helicopter company workers involved with the salvaging began their work on Sunday morning and hauled debris to Waioli Park mauka of Hanalei Bay.
A Kauai Commercial flatbed truck then trucked the debris to a hangar at the Lihue Airport, where reconstruction and analysis of the helicopter will begin to help determine the cause of the accident, Eckrote said.
Investigators have not ruled out bad weather as a possible cause, she said.
In interviewing the two surviving passengers and the pilot on Saturday, Charnon noted that "one passenger said they were flying into "a wall of rain" before the helicopter went down.
"The helicopter flew in there, and they could see, and all of a sudden, they were near the water," she said.
She said the pilot kept track of the distance between the helicopter and the shoreline "through the entire event and was in the process of turning around, to reverse direction from this weather system, when they got into a rapid sink rate, and ended hitting the water."
Eckrote said that once the passengers hit the water, they experienced a torrential downpour."
"The pilot is saying the same thing and indicating there was thunder and lightning and tor-rential rain after they got into the water and surfaced," Eckrote said.
A weather study is to be done in Washington D.C. for the crash, Eckrote said, adding that while "we do consider weather as a factor, we don't know how much of a factor yet."
"Both the passengers and the pilot reported weather, and we have some witnesses that are indicating the same," Eckrote said.
She said malfunctioning equipment also hasn't been ruled out as a possible cause for the accident.
"The pilot was indicating something right at the very end (before the helicopter hit the water), low rotor rpm," Eckrote said.
She said investigators will look "at the engine, the systems and the airframe to confirm whether engine malfunction was a possible cause."
The pilot reported that the helicopter was operating smoothy during earlier flights in the day and prior to it going down, Charnon said.
The pilot, whose identity was not released, has worked for Heli USA for six to seven weeks, and had flown for law enforcement agencies in Houston and electronic media companies in the Mainland, Charnon said.
Power, vice president of Heli USA, who attended the press briefing, said the company's priority at this point is to tend to the needs of the survivors and the families.
"We wanted to offer our sincerest condolences, which go out to all the families of the passengers on board that helicopter," he said.
He also said, "our management team on Kaua‘i, including the president, is working very closely to assist those family members in their repatriation of their homes to the respective locations in the U.S," he said. "Obviously, that is basically our position right now."
Power said the three deaths in Friday's helicopter crash were the first in the company's 16 years of operation.
The company has flown more than a million miles since that time, and "it was a very sad day for us on Friday when the situation occurred," Power said.
He thanked the Navy, the Coast Guard, Kaua‘i County police officers, firefighters, lifeguards and residents for the help they provided to the crash victims and survivors.
Out of respect for those who died, the Kaua‘i operations, which now has four helicopters, closed on Saturday, Power said.
In the helicopter crash, three passengers died and three made it to shore safely. One of the survivors swam to shore on his own, and two others caught rides from Kaua‘i‘ Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau lifeguards aboard personal water craft.
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candyrosh wrote on Jun 10, 2009 10:21 PM:
" “The burial treatment plan is very flawed,” Huff said. “It is a clear violation of our rights as indigenous people.”
“We will be staying until further notice and until the state of Hawai�i acknowledges the property was fraudulently sold to Brescia,” Huff said.
------------------------
candyrosh
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camper trailer--camper trailer "
“We will be staying until further notice and until the state of Hawai�i acknowledges the property was fraudulently sold to Brescia,” Huff said.
------------------------
candyrosh
--------------------
camper trailer--camper trailer "
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Victor
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