Wreckage of plane to be moved, examined
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By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — A National Transportation Safety Board investigator arrived on Maui yesterday to begin the task of figuring out the cause of Saturday's crash of a small plane that killed Maui homebuilder Steve Betsill and three relatives from Texas.
Los Angeles-based investigator Tealye Cornejo was expected to be at the crash site in Nahiku by late afternoon for her first look at the Cessna Cardinal 177 that smashed nose-first into the ground 200 feet above the Hana Highway.
The plane, co-owned and piloted by Betsill, was reported missing Saturday night after leaving Kahului Airport in the afternoon on a sightseeing tour that was to include Lahaina, Moloka'i and East Maui before returning to Kahului. The wreckage was found Monday morning in forested terrain by a helicopter chartered by the Betsill family.
The bodies were removed Monday afternoon.
Betsill, 47, was vice president of sales and marketing for Kihei-based Betsill Brothers Construction Inc. The firm, run by himself and his three brothers, is among Hawai'i's top 25 largest builders.
The passengers were relatives from Fort Worth, Texas — cousin Jerry Betsill, 44; his 11-year-old daughter, Emma, and 10-year-old niece, Meredith Fenimore of Dallas.
The tentative plan for today, according to Federal Aviation Administration official Tweet Coleman, is to move the wreckage to a staging area, probably Kahului Airport, and examine the plane and its engine with some manufacturer representatives.
Several members of the Betsill family attended a memorial service yesterday morning for an employee who died in an apparent accident last week.
Jeanne Trusty, a real estate broker and director of marketing communications for Clearly Maui Inc. — a company Steve Betsill started to help his firm sell homes — fell 30 feet from the parking structure of a shopping center in Ka'anaapli July 6. A police investigation is continuing, but officers said they found no signs of foul play.
A memorial service for Steve Betsill has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at First Assembly of God in Kahului.
