Helicopter crash on Kaua'i kills pilot, four tourists

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Swirling clouds a few hundred feet below Mount Wai'ale'ale prevented the rescue of a critically injured passenger who was aboard a tour helicopter that crashed at about 9 a.m. yesterday.

The woman died on the mountain. She was attended to by two firefighters who had been dropped to the site before the weather closed in.

The names of the victims were not released yesterday. The bodies were expected to remain at the crash site until conditions improved.

"Visibility is pretty bad up on the mountain," said county public information officer Cyndi Ozaki.

It was Hawai'i's second fatal tour helicopter crash in less than six weeks.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker said the Jack Harter Helicopters flight left Lihu'e at 8 a.m. with its pilot and two Mainland couples in a Bell 206B helicopter.

The flight was due back at 9:05 a.m., but radio contact was lost about 9 a.m.

Casey Riemer, general manager of Jack Harter Helicopters, said the company notified authorities at 9:30 a.m. that the flight was overdue. The company immediately stopped its tours and began searching for the missing aircraft. Several other helicopter companies did the same.

The wreckage was spotted just before noon. The helicopter firm Air-1 dropped firefighters to the site, which was described as a steep slope near Wai'ale'ale, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet.

The rescuers reported by radio that they had found a single survivor, a woman, who lay in a crevasse, severely injured. Before a helicopter could pull her out, the clouds closed in.

Brief openings in the mist were not sufficient to allow the helicopter to take the victim out, and at about 3 p.m., a radio report from the mountainside said she had died.

Rescue crews were taken off the mountain last evening. Crews were to be brought to the site today to recover the bodies.

A Jack Harter Helicopters Aerospatiale Astar takes off from the firm's pad at the Lihu'e Airport heliport yesterday. Another of the company's helicopters crashed into Mount Wai'ale'ale, killing five. Jan Tenbruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

The company's owner, Jack Harter, flew the first helicopter tours on Kaua'i in 1962 and started his own firm in 1975. The company, which advertised its perfect safety record, flew the Bell 206B and flies two Aerospatiale Astar tour helicopters.

Riemer said the pilot lived on Kaua'i and was experienced.

James Le, pilot and owner of Bali Hai Helicopter Tours, said he knew the flier as a good pilot with military training who "knows the conditions."

Le said one of his own pilots told him the weather was clear on Mount Wai'ale'ale in the morning. But when Le tried to fly a television crew to the crash site yesterday afternoon, the summit area was socked in. Weather conditions can change fast, he said.

Most tours fly below cloud cover on Wai'ale'ale — known as the wettest place on Earth — staying at 2,500 to 3,000 feet, and most tours don't fly as high on the mountain as this one did, Le said.

"If you're not careful, the weather up there can get you easily," he said.

On June 15, three tourists and a pilot were killed when a Tropical Helicopters Hughes 500 crashed in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. The cause of that crash remains under investigation.

Yesterday's crash was near the site of another accident in 1998 in which six people died when an 'Ohana Helicopters Astar slammed into the mountainside. An NTSB report on that crash said the aircraft was flying in deteriorating weather in the island's central mountains when the pilot found himself in dense clouds about 2,400 feet above sea level.

The Federal Aviation Administration requirements for the region mandate that helicopters stay at least 500 feet below clouds and 1,000 feet above the surface, and fly in areas with at least three miles of visibility.

Advertiser staff writers Timothy Hurley and Christie Wilson contributed to this report.