Posted on: Thursday, December 30, 2004
Cause of Coast Guard ditching still unknown
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
Federal investigators were unable to determine the cause of engine failure that forced a Coast Guard official to ditch his single-engine plane off Maui on Nov. 16, 2003.
Lt. Cmdr. William Swears had taken off from Honolulu and was four hours into an 18-hour flight to California when his experimental Suminski Cozy Long EZ airplane suffered engine trouble. The pilot turned back toward Maui and went down a half-hour later about 90 miles northeast of the island.
Swears spent four hours in the ocean before being rescued by Coast Guard crews he had helped train. He was hospitalized with several cracked vertebrae, chemical burns, and cuts and bruises.
Part of the airframe and the engine washed ashore on a beach near Hilo about a month later. A National Transportation Safety Board investigator examined the engine but found no definitive evidence of what caused the loss of engine power, according to a report released this week.
The NTSB released several other "probable cause" reports this week, including one that cited pilot conduct for a fatal helicopter crash May 22, 2003, on Kaho'olawe.
Pilot Gary Freeman made three trips that day in a Pacific Helicopter Tours military surplus Bell UH-1H to haul supplies between Maui and Kaho'olawe. The last load was a 3,000-pound fuel pod that had been attached to a 41-foot cable. After dropping off the fuel pod, the pilot departed with the cable still attached to the helicopter.
A witness reported seeing the unweighted cable swinging free under the aircraft and slapping the fuselage once before becoming tangled in the tail rotor. The tail rotor separated from the helicopter, which rolled and crashed, igniting a fire.
Freeman, 55, a Vietnam veteran with extensive helicopter experience, died.
The helicopter company told investigators it was not normal procedure to fly between the two islands with the cable attached without a load.
A report on a Sept. 9, 2003, incident in which a Sunshine Helicopters volcano tour flight experienced a hard landing in a lava field said the pilot failed to maintain control of the Eurocopter France AS 350 BA while trying to turn away from deteriorating weather conditions.
Neither the pilot nor his six passengers were hurt, but the helicopter sustained substantial damage, the report said.
The aircraft had departed from the Hapuna Heliport and was flying over mountainous terrain when it encountered fog and low-level clouds, the NTSB report said. The pilot turned away and initiated a climb but was unable to maintain altitude. The helicopter came down at about the 8,500-foot elevation on Mauna Loa just inside the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, bouncing across the rocky terrain for about 50 to 60 feet before coming to rest, the report said.
The pilot and passengers were rescued by another helicopter.
Engine problems were blamed for the June 26, 2003, crash of a Windward Aviation helicopter involved in firefighting operations at Kualapu'u, Moloka'i.
The pilot had maneuvered over a pond to pick up water when he heard a loud bang and saw white smoke coming from the Hughes 369D's engine exhaust, the report said. He managed to make a hard landing from an altitude of 150 feet. Despite serious injuries, the pilot escaped from the aircraft, which caught fire.
NTSB investigators determined the probable cause of the accident as loss of engine power resulting from a fatigue-related cracking of the turbine wheel airfoils. The cause of the fatigue was not determined, but the report noted that modifications to the aircraft's turbine section, based on a notice from the manufacturer, had been done a year earlier.
Engine maintenance centers and the military were advised of the failure, but no similar cases have been identified, the NTSB said.
Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
