Neighbor Island briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

BIG ISLAND

Victims of plane crash file lawsuit

Four Michigan residents who were injured in the crash of a tour plane off the Big Island two years ago are seeking damages in a lawsuit.

Alvin and Oretha Taylor and Lori and Angela Taylor were passengers on a Piper Navajo Chieftain that ditched in the ocean about 200 yards off the Hilo coast Aug. 25, 2000.

Eight people, including the pilot, survived, but one passenger, Laveta Rose Reynolds, 61, of Oklahoma, died. The plane sank about 60 seconds after the crash landing.

The Taylors contend they suffered serious emotional and physical injuries and have had to incur emergency hospital and other medical expenses.

Defendants are Big Island Air Inc. and its owner, Tom Beard; Piper Aircraft Corp.; and pilot Nicholas Damis.

MAUI

More dead birds found on Maui

State wildlife workers have found more dead birds at a nesting site near Maui's Ho'okipa Beach Park.

Bird specialist Fern Duvall said the workers found 12 more wedge-tailed shearwaters that apparently were killed by feral cats.

Three live chicks were found in their burrows, but it was not known if parents of the chicks were at sea or were among the dead, Duvall said.

The birds were from the same colony that has been devastated during the past month by cats, he said.

Earlier this month, Duvall recovered the bodies of 93 shearwaters from the cliffs between Ho'okipa and Maliko Bay. The injuries to the heads and chests indicate the birds had been killed by cats, he said.

Wedge-tailed shearwaters are native to Hawai'i but are also found throughout the Pacific and are not considered an endangered or threatened species.

"It's pretty much destroyed the colony," Duvall said.