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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Tour helicopter wreckage pulled from path of lava

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Flowing lava threatened to overrun the site of a tour helicopter crash that killed four people Sunday, forcing investigators to airlift the wreckage out of a lava field yesterday.

A Los Angeles investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board and two from the Federal Aviation Administration converged on the site to begin the inquiry into the crash that killed the pilot and all three passengers.

Federal officials identified the victims as pilot Russell Holliday and passengers Jody Laughman; her 13-year-old daughter, Nicole Laughman; and Jody's husband, James Thomas. The passengers were from Lake Meade in Adams County in South Central Pennsylvania.

The Tropical Helicopters Hughes 500 from Hilo slammed into the ground Sunday morning and was engulfed in flames on a cliff known as Pulama Pali about two miles from Chain of Craters Road in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Recent air-tour crashes in Hawai'i

• June 15, 2003: Three tourists and a pilot are killed when a Tropical Helicopters Hughes 500 crashes on the Big Island.

• July 21, 2000: A Blue Hawaiian Tours helicopter crashes on Maui, killing seven.

• Sept. 25, 1999: A Piper Navajo Chieftain tour plane crashes on the slopes of Mauna Loa on the Big Island, killing all 10 on board.

• June 25, 1998: An Aerospatiale Astar operated by 'Ohana Helicopters smashes into a mountainside in Kaua'i's central mountains, killing six.

• July 14, 1994: A Papillon Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-350D Astar crashes off Kaua'i's Na Pali Coast. Three of seven people on board die. The same day, a Hawai'i Helicopters craft crashes off Moloka'i, but all aboard survive.

• April 18, 1994: An Interisland Helicopters craft crashes near Hanapepe Valley on Kaua'i, killing one and injuring four.

• Jan. 25, 1993: A Kainoa Aviation Hilleer 1100 helicopter plunges into the ocean off Kamoamoa on the Big Island, killing four.

• Sept. 16, 1992: A Hawai'i Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-350D Astar slams into southern slope of Haleakala on Maui, killing seven.

• April 22, 1992: Nine aboard a Scenic Air Tours plane die in a crash on the slopes of Haleakala.

Calvin Dorn, president of K&S Helicopters, said Holliday had a wife and two young children who were preparing to move to join him in East Hawai'i before the crash. Tropical Helicopters is registered to do business in Hawai'i as K&S Helicopters Inc.

Holliday, a big man who was known by the nickname "Hoss," was a "highly experienced professional" who had completed two outside professional training programs in the past two months, Dorn said.

"He was one of the most professional pilots that I have ever trained," Dorn said. "He was a very, very friendly, loving, happy guy. Very professional. He took his flying seriously, and he was incredibly talented."

The York Daily Record in York, Pa., reported that Jody Laughman was visiting her brother in Hawai'i, and that the brother called family and friends in Pennsylvania to notify them of the deaths.

At 45 Sedgwick Drive, where Thomas and the Laughmans lived in Lake Meade, cars were parked in a long line on the street yesterday as friends and neighbors stopped to pay their respects.

Nicole's friends covered the garage with poster-board collages that showed pictures of Nicole smiling, posing in her basketball uniform and sitting cheek-to-cheek with a best friend.

Her peers from Bermudian Springs Middle School took turns writing sentiments in chalk on the sidewalk to the 13-year-old they called "Fluffy."

"They didn't come any finer than Nicole," said Chuck Neri, a guidance counselor at Nicole's school. Neri recalled Nicole was a good student who always wore a smile, according to the Daily Record.

Paul Schlamm, an NTSB spokesman, said there are no known witnesses to the crash.

Holliday radioed a mayday call at 9:48 a.m. Sunday, reporting engine failure 31 minutes into the 50-minute aerial tour of the volcano.

Schlamm said there was "post-impact fire." Parks officials said a helicopter fighting a brush fire at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park flew over the crash site shortly after impact and dumped water on the flames.

The wreckage was at an elevation of about 620 feet, about two miles from the end of Chain of Craters Road near the Kalapana Trail, park ranger Jim Gale said.

Three loads of helicopter wreckage were airlifted from the crash site and taken to Hilo yesterday to prevent them from being engulfed by oncoming lava, Gale said. The lava advanced to within 50 feet of the site as the last of the debris was removed, Gale said.

The bodies were removed from the wreckage Sunday and taken to Hilo Medical Center, where autopsies were to be conducted today.

Holliday was working on O'ahu last week, shuttling workers and equipment up the Ko'olau Mountains above Wai'alae Iki Ridge to maintain a radio tower there.

Brandon Valant, who was part of a crew that was dropped off on the ridge, recalled the pilot as comfortable, confident and familiar with the terrain. As Holliday picked up the crew in the afternoon to take them down, he was teaching a second pilot how to maneuver around the small landing area on the ridge, Valant said.

"He was a super-cool guy," said Valant, who is an account specialist with the two-way radio company Island SMR. "He looked very young. It's too bad."

Reach Kevin Dayton at (808) 935-3916 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.