Crew recounts plane crash rescue

By Kevin Dayton and Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writers

Coast Guard Petty Officer Roger Wilson has been pulling people out of precarious situations for the better part of two decades.

Roger Wilson, front, a U.S. Coast Guard aviation survival technician; flight mechanic Ryan Phillips, far left; and pilot David Smith helped rescue three victims after a plane went down on a Big Island lava field Sunday afternoon. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"When I got on the ground, I couldn't believe anyone survived," said Wilson, an aviation survival technician.

The lava flow was 60 to 100 yards wide and was flanked by a ravine to the left and a forest to the right. Using night-vision goggles, Wilson swept the area around the downed plane, and saw Catherine Ratcliff standing in the rear of the burnt fuselage.

Her husband, Dallas Ratcliff, was waving his T-shirt nearby, standing on one of the aft wings of the single-engine Piper Warrior. The tour plane, operated by Island Hoppers, had crashed at about 4:30 p.m.

Despite cloud cover and rain, a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft had finally spotted it at 9:09 that night, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Erica Taylor.

"I could see immediately that they were severely burned," Wilson said. "They started to say they were thirsty, and hungry. I could tell that they were going into shock."

The Ohio couple were on their "trip of a lifetime" when their single-engine sightseeing aircraft crashed in the lava field near Miloli'i on the Big Island.

The Ratcliffs were in critical condition at The Queen's Medical Center last night. Rick Wilson said his mother suffered burns over almost 10 percent of her body, with the most serious burns on her feet.

He said his stepfather suffered burns over about 60 percent of his body.

Officials said the unidentified pilot also was in critical condition at Queen's with less serious burns.

After the crash, the pilot used a cell phone to call 911 and the Coast Guard for help.

In a dispatch tape released by the Big Island Fire Department, the distraught pilot said the plane had crashed just south of Miloli'i, but was unable to give the precise location. She also warned the dispatcher that the cell phone's battery was running low.

"C'mon, c'mon, guys get me out," she said. She said she and her two passengers had escaped the burning plane.

When the 911 dispatcher asked about injuries, the pilot replied, "We have burns, three people, we need help ... Burns to head and hands, arms, back, legs."

The pilot told the Coast Guard she had made a forced landing on an old lava flow about four miles northeast of Highway 11.

But now Roger Wilson was at the scene and couldn't find her.

He said the fuselage of the plane was completely burned down to the springs in the seats. He loaded the Ratcliffs one by one into a basket suspended beneath the hovering helicopter before turning his attention to finding the pilot.

As Lt. Thomas Meyer and the rest of the helicopter crew flew off, Roger Wilson illuminated the area around the tail of the plane with glow sticks.

After the helicopter left, he said he could hear crying in the silent darkness. He began yelling out and walking toward the voice, leaving a trail of glow sticks behind him to mark his way back to the crash site.

He said he finally found the pilot at the bottom of a 100-foot ravine, 150 yards from the crash site. She was sitting up with her legs held close to her chest, crying when he shined his flashlight on her. Roger Wilson said she had hiked away from the crash looking for help.

He threw glow sticks down around her and began climbing down into the ravine.

"I had to turn off my flashlight when I climbed down there. When I took the light away, it was pitch black, there was no moon," he said.

When he got to the pilot, Roger Wilson said her right arm was completely burned and she was lapsing into shock. They slowly began the ascent and made their way to the crash site.

Once there, Roger Wilson removed her wet clothes and gave her his dry T-shirt, then tried to keep her warm. Meyer later said the pilot's shoes were melted by the heat of the fire.

The helicopter took the Ratcliffs to an air ambulance at Kona International Airport and returned to the crash site.

Roger Wilson and the pilot waited for the helicopter to return for more than an hour, which Wilson said was plenty of time to talk about what happened.

"She said she caught a severe downdraft and that's why they went down," he said. "She just kept saying she was sorry."

Big Island Fire Chief Darryl Oliveira said fire rescue workers who surveyed the crash site yesterday morning praised the Island Hoppers pilot for skillfully guiding the aircraft to the ground, keeping it largely intact on very rough terrain.

The aircraft did not break up, suggesting the pilot was able to dramatically reduce the speed of the plane before making a forced landing, he said.

"They attribute the three of them surviving to the pilot's ability to do that," Oliveira said. "She did a really good job putting it down."

Rick Wilson, Catherine Ratcliff's son, said the tour company told him they believe the crash may have been caused by "wind shear" that forced the aircraft down.

Rick Wilson said his mother had been in the habit of going to the same resort town each year and renting a beach house. He had urged her to "see something different."

Catherine, 63, grew up poor, and told her four grown children she was sorry that she had not been able to give them the finer things in life.

"This was like the trip of a lifetime for her," Rick Wilson said, with the couple planning to spend a two-week vacation in Hawai'i, making air tours of each of the major islands.

Dallas Ratcliff is a retired nuclear power plant worker, Rick Wilson said.

"I couldn't ask for anyone better for her than Dallas," he said.

Island Hoppers President Phil Auldridge offered to pay for Catherine Ratcliff's children to fly to Hawai'i and stay in a hotel, and Rick Wilson said he planned to leave for O'ahu today.

Island Hoppers operates from both the Hilo and Kona airports, but had suspended operations yesterday.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

Reach Kevin Dayton at 808 935-3916 or at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.