Posted on: Sunday, May 20, 2001

Cessna tourists stable in Big Island hospital

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Three tourists who were aboard a Cessna 337 Skymaster that ditched Friday off the Big Island were recuperating yesterday at the North Hawai'i Community Hospital.

"Everyone is in stable condition," said a nursing supervisor.

The three were not expected to be released before this morning.

Marcos and Adriane Greca of Brazil and Joseph and Ruth Varnadore of California were the passengers on the flight. Marcos Greca and the pilot, Mike Lauro, were not hospitalized. No one was critically injured.

The pilot brought the plane down about 100 yards off Pa'auilo on the Hamakua coast yesterday morning. He told the firefighters who rescued him that the plane had lost power.

Kawehi Inabe, owner of Mokulele Flight Services and the downed aircraft, said yesterday that two Federal Aviation Administration investigators from Honolulu were checking several possible sources for the power loss, including the possibility of fuel contamination.

National Transportation and Safety Board investigators also contacted her.

Inabe said she had confidence in her fuel supplier. Mokulele Flight Services was open for business yesterday.

"We're moving forward," Inabe said. "If there were fatalities, we wouldn't be (open), out of respect."