Plane crash victim trying to speak
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — An Ohio man who was burned over 40 percent of his body in a Big Island plane crash Sunday has been trying to talk to visiting family members at Straub Hospital, but remains in critical condition.
Dallas Ratcliff, 61, and wife Catherine, 63, of West Portsmouth, Ohio, were both burned after their Island Hoppers tour flight crashed on a lava field near Miloli'i.
Jelica Matic, the pilot of the Island Hoppers tour flight, also was burned, but no information was available yesterday on her condition. Her injuries reportedly were less severe than the Ratcliffs'.
Catherine Ratcliff suffered burns over about 10 percent of her body, and remained in critical condition at Straub Hospital yesterday.
Her son, Rick Wilson of Greenville, Ohio, said family members invited a church pastor to the hospital to read to his stepfather, and brought in country and gospel music for him to listen to while he recovers.
"He's a strong man. He's responding actually better than Mom is when we're talking to him," Wilson said. "He's trying to talk to us and he's got that tube down his throat, and I keep telling him, 'Don't try to talk, Dallas.' "
Catherine Ratcliff's four grown children from Ohio, Kentucky and North Carolina are in Honolulu along with Dallas Ratcliff's two children from Ohio, Wilson said.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration studied Island Hoppers files in Kona yesterday on pilot training and maintenance for the single-engine Piper Warrior airplane.
NTSB investigator Clint Johnson said he expects to speak with the pilot and passengers this weekend or early next week if doctors decide they are well enough.
He said Island Hoppers' insurance company would arrange for the plane to be removed from the crash site, and the NTSB would take custody of the wreckage in Kona to study it.
The pilot told company officials the plane was forced down by an extreme downdraft shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday. She and two passengers were rescued from the crash site by the U.S. Coast Guard shortly after 9 p.m.
Wilson said family members plan to charter a plane to travel to the crash site area tomorrow to see it for themselves.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
