Navy lieutenant survives fall into volcano
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
VOLCANO, Hawai'i — A young Navy officer yesterday survived an 85-foot fall into the Kilauea caldera thanks to an unwanted exotic tree that broke his fall.
Associated Press
"It was a happy ending, landing," said Mardie Lane, spokesman for Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park after a visibly shaken Scott W. Larson was released from Hilo Medical Center with cuts, bruises and stitches but no major injuries.
Hawai'i County paramedic Ernie Kaneshiro and Ranger Jamie Mar are lowered by rope and harness to the tree where Lt. j.g. Scott Larson of 'Aiea fell into while trying to retrieve his wind-blown baseball cap.
Happy ending indeed.
The adventure began shortly after 10 a.m. when Lt. j.g. Larson and two sailor friends arrived at the national park.
A burst of wind suddenly carried his baseball cap toward the crater, and he went racing after it. He grabbed the hat just in time to go sailing over the crater wall.
A friend called 911 on a cell phone.
Within a short time, a team of county and federal rescuers were at the scene. The first to descend was Ernest Kaneshiro who later said, "I was down in the pit."
K.T. Eger, a Big Island writer and president of the Navy League in Hilo, visited Larson at the hospital and said he was still in shock. Larson called his family in Boston from the hospital room.
"He was pretty banged up," she said.
Larson, who is stationed aboard the USS Crommelin, underwent a series of tests, including a CAT scan that concluded he had no major internal injuries. Twelve stitches and a lot of bandages later, he was released.
If Larson's steep fall had not been broken by a Myrica faya tree, he would have fallen another 100 feet and likely died, said park ranger Mardie Lane.
The Myrica faya tree infests 85,000 acres on four of Hawai'i's islands.
The tree was imported from the Azores in the late 1800s to help reforest Hawai'i's barren mountain slopes, but now is considered an invasive pest.
The rescue was pulled off by Kaneshiro and park ranger Jamie Mar.
They were lowered by a rope to the tree that broke Larson's fall. Kaneshiro attended to Larson's injuries and Mar put him in a harness. Then rescue workers raised all three to safety.
Larson walked to an ambulance that took him to a helicopter dispatched from a rescue station in South Kohala. He was flown to Hilo Medical Center.
Ranger Jeff Kracht, coordinator of research and rescue at the 220,000-acre park, said: "Park railings are there for a reason. Is it worth risking your life and the lives of rescue personnel for a $10 baseball cap?"
The whereabouts of the cap Larson was chasing was unknown last night. It did not even bear the logo of a cherished baseball team, only that of garment company Abercrombie & Fitch.
Kilauea has been erupting since Jan. 3, 1983. The accident happened about 12 miles from the eruption site.
The Crommelin, a guided missile frigate home-ported in Honolulu, was in town for five days to help Hilo celebrate its 40th International Festival, which annually draws a U.S. Navy vessel and a Japanese training ship.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach Hugh Clark at (808) 935-3916 or hclark@honoluluadvertiser.com.
