Tour helicopter wreckage taken off Wai'ale'ale

Associated Press

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Some wreckage from a tour helicopter crash that claimed five lives was recovered yesterday from Wai'ale'ale on Kaua'i.

A two-man team retrieved the items as they began working their way from the point of impact on Mount Wai'ale'ale down several hundred feet to the 4,600-foot level where the victims were found, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Wayne Pollack said. The recovery operation resumes today.

Pilot Mark Lundgren, 44, of Puhi, and his passengers, Jeffrey and Monica Peterson, both 33, of Denver, and Edward J. Wadiak, 55, and his wife, Teresa M. Wadiak, 53, of Manassas, Va., were killed when the helicopter crashed Wednesday.