Rescued pilot embarrassed, but glad to be alive
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. William Swears was taking his final leave, flying to the Mainland with the aim of writing science fiction in his retirement. But his own story took a near-tragic plot twist Saturday night — one he hoped would never occur.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser
Swears ditched his single-engine plane in the ocean north of Maui, and was rescued by the same Coast Guard crews he had helped train.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. William Swears is recovering at Maui Memorial Medical Center after Sunday's airplane crash.
Yesterday, the 43-year-old helicopter pilot was embarrassed about the experience but grateful to be alive while resting at Maui Memorial Medical Center with a couple of cracked vertebrae, chemical burns from spilling fuel, and scores of cuts and bruises.
Swears acknowledged that it was his Coast Guard training and high degree of safety preparation that helped crews accomplish the rescue. But that didn't stop him from spending all of his four hours in the ocean praying for a chance to see his wife and 4-year-old daughter again. He also longed to witness the birth of his baby boy, expected in mid-February.
"I never lost hope," he said.
Honored in a Honolulu retirement ceremony less than a month ago and scheduled to officially retire Feb. 1, Swears was leaving Hawai'i for good. The plan was to fly his white fiberglass Cozy Canard Pusher airplane across the Pacific for wintering in Arizona, while he and his family headed north to settle in the Anchorage, Alaska, area.
He took off from Honolulu at 4:45 p.m. for a planned 18-hour flight to San Francisco. Four hours later, about 175 miles north of Maui, the engine started riding roughly and he realized his oil pressure was dropping. He made a beeline for Maui.
Thirty minutes later, he was forced to ditch the aircraft, flying as slowly as possible and leveling off with the water as much as he could. But it was still a violent crash that ripped his plane apart roughly 100 miles north of Maui.
"I don't remember the first two or three minutes," he said.
Stunned but not disabled, Swears grabbed an inflatable raft and other survival gear, including a strobe light and emergency locator to set off a rescue signal.
But the raft was soon punctured by the plane's fiberglass shards, and he pulled himself back onto a portion of the aircraft still floating in the water. Meanwhile, 5- to 8-foot swells kept knocking him into the darkened seas, and he hung on for life.
Swears saw the first rescue plane in 45 minutes, but it flew past him. The same thing happened several times. "Every time that happened I got a little nervous," he said.
But, finally, a flare was dropped nearby, and he knew he could make it if he could just hold on.
"I never felt as much joy and gratitude as when (Coast Guard helicopter crewman) Scott Gordon grabbed me ... ," he said.
Meanwhile, in Port Orchard, Wash., the pilot's wife, Katerry Swears, never received the 9:30 p.m. (Hawaiian Standard Time) phone call she was expecting from her husband.
"I was hoping he was having satellite problems," she said from his Maui bedside. She fell asleep only to be awakened by an early morning call from authorities saying her husband had been rescued.
Meeting with reporters in his hospital room yesterday, Swears expressed gratitude to those who rescued him. He read off a list of 13 names of Coast Guard and National Guard crewmen involved in the operation.
He also defended the airworthiness of his aircraft, saying the Cozy has a better safety record than most better-known single-engine aircraft.
"The plane itself is not at fault," he said. "The engine failed me, and I don't know why."
Swears said he was embarrassed, because it was not the first time he had been rescued by the Coast Guard. Five years ago while hunting, he was rescued after he slipped and fell, dislocating an elbow while hauling a deer with a friend on a slope on an island in Alaska.
Swears said flying his airplane from Hawai'i to the Mainland was a lifelong dream. Comparing the effort to climbing Mount Everest, he said he spent a great deal of money preparing for the journey — much more than if he had merely shipped the plane.
"Now I wish I had shipped the airplane," he said.
Swears, who has already written half of a novel, said he wouldn't be working this episode into the book.
"The Coast Guard has given me a lot of great story fodder, but I'm going to leave that alone for now."
Contact Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
