Crews recover body at Moloka'i plane crash site
| • | Mother says teen pilot was ideal son |
| • | Map: Plane crashes into Moloka'i mountainside |
 |
See video of the area surrounding the wreckage of the plane (RealPlayer required) |
By Timothy Hurley and Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writers
Maui firefighters yesterday recovered the body of the teenage pilot of a small plane that slammed into a ridge along Moloka'i's rugged northeast coast, known for some of the tallest sea cliffs in the world.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The wreckage — the single-engine Cessna 172 missing since Saturday — was discovered by a Maui Fire Department helicopter at about 7:05 a.m. yesterday at the 1,500-foot level on Manuahi Ridge. The pilot was 17-year-old Chezray Hayes.
Natalie Hayes, left, mother of missing pilot Chezray Hayes, watches a newscast with family members in Mililani about the crashed plane found on Moloka'i.
The Hayes family said last night that Maui officials told them the body was that of their son.
The rugged, forbidding terrain made recovery efforts extremely difficult. Maui Assistant Fire Chief Greg Chong Kee said a rescue crew of about 15 members arrived near the scene at 12:30 and cleared a landing area for the helicopter.
Firefighters then rappelled 400 feet down a 70-degree slope to get to the crash site, he said. The body, found in the wreckage, was recovered at about 4:50 p.m., Chong Kee said, and turned over to Maui police for positive identification.
Hayes, an O'ahu teen with 30 hours of flight experience as a member of the Hawai'i Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, was flying solo from Honolulu to Maui on Saturday. He last checked in with Moloka'i airport officials at 12:15 p.m.
Manuahi Ridge is within The Nature Conservancy's remote Pelekunu Preserve — 5,714 acres of wilderness that is home to one of Hawai'i's last remaining free-flowing streams.
Hayes family photo
Ed Misaki, the conservancy's Moloka'i preserve manager, said no conservation work is conducted on Manuahi Ridge because of its steepness, and the preserve is not open to the public because of its remote, rugged location.
Chezray Hayes had 30 hours of flight experience as a member of the Hawai'i Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.
"The chances of getting lost in that area is very real,'' he said.
Moloka'i's Walter Ritte regularly hunts in the island's backcountry and said Manuahi Ridge is used by hunters as a trail to descend into the valley from the island's interior. He described the ridge as so narrow at the top that there is room for only one person. "At the end it's straight downhill, and your knees start to ache,'' he said.
Ritte said he could recall standing at Ha'upu, a 1,022-foot point at the ocean end of the ridge, watching small planes fly below him.
The ridge, he said, has a propensity to be covered by mist and clouds, especially late in the day.
"I remember it being misty and cloudy that day,'' Ritte said of the day the plane was lost.
Chopper 8 • Special to The Advertiser
Earlier yesterday, a U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter and a U.S. Navy helicopter took part in the search that began at first light.
Crews yesterday found the body of 17-year-old Chezray Hayes, the pilot of a plane that crashed Saturday on Moloka'i. Wreckage from the plane also was found.
Coast Guard Lt. Kevin Kerney, the pilot in command of the Dolphin helicopter, said the weather had improved dramatically from the previous two days, when poor visibility made search patterns near Pelekunu futile.
Kerney said the plane crashed at an elevation of 1,400 to 1,500 feet and had missed clearing a north-to-south ridge line in the valley by 50 to 75 feet.
Kerney said he thought about lowering one of his rescue people, but decided it was too dangerous.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator will lead an investigation into the cause of the crash, said Mike Fergus, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
Aircraft recovery operations in the mountainous terrain of East Moloka'i are not new to Maui County rescue personnel.
On Nov. 1, 1996, a small plane carrying Maui Democratic Chairman Robert McCarthy, Councilman Tom Morrow and four others slammed into a ridge above Halawa Valley en route to Maui, killing everyone aboard.
On Oct. 28, 1989, 20 died, including eight from Moloka'i High School volleyball teams, when an Aloha Island Air flight crashed near Halawa Valley.
On July 21, 2000, operations took all day in the recovery of seven bodies from a tour helicopter that crashed in Maui's 'Iao Valley. The steep terrain was similar to that at Pelekunu, Chong Kee said.
Reach Timothy Hurley at (808) 244-4880 or e-mail at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com
Correction: An Aloha Island Air flight crashed near Moloka'i's Halawa Valley on Oct. 28, 1989, killing 20 people. The airline's name was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
