Pilot OK after ocean rescue
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A commercial pilot flying his private airplane from O'ahu to Kaua'i crashed yesterday about 25 miles southeast of Lihu'e.
Bob Justman of Hawaiian Airlines was in stable condition yesterday at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. His RV8 experimental aircraft, which he had been flying alone, sank.
In a statement released by his family yesterday, Justman said he was flying to Lihu'e to visit an ill relative.
Shortly after 8 a.m., the 56-year-old pilot began having engine problems. He contacted air traffic controllers in Honolulu and kept them informed as his plane lost power. He was just 200 feet over the water when he last communicated with them. Then the plane went in.
"After impact," Justman said, "the canopy closed and the aircraft inverted under water, trapping me in the cockpit."
Justman got out of his safety harness and struggled with the canopy, which was stuck.
"Miraculously, the canopy partially opened after I continued working with it," he said. "I was able to eject myself from the cockpit just before the aircraft sank."
Justman swam around, grabbing for pieces of debris.
Meanwhile, when air traffic controllers were unable to resume communications with Justman, they called the U.S. Coast Guard, giving them his last location from radar.
Lt. j.g. Harry Greene was among the 4-person crew of the HH-65 Dolphin helicopter that had been on routine patrol when it got the call.
Greene, piloting alongside Lt. Kevin Quilliam, the aircraft commander, said the Dolphin crew headed toward Justman's last known location, followed by a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules from Barbers Point.
At the coordinates, the Dolphin began to circle, Greene said, each of the four crew members keeping an eye out for the downed pilot.
"It can be like looking for a needle in a cornfield," Greene said. "Even when the ocean is calm there are still whitecaps, and you can easily lose them behind a swell."
Clutching a small piece of white wreckage, Justman had been treading water for 40 minutes. When he saw the helicopter overhead, he waved the debris frantically, splashing water with his arms.
Petty Officer 1st Class Ronnie German, the crew's rescue swimmer, spotted him, about a mile off the coordinates provided by the air traffic controllers and about a quarter-mile off the right side of the Dolphin.
"He was doing a great job of attracting our attention," Greene said.
The helicopter veered off to jettison excess fuel so that the Dolphin could take on the extra weight of another person. They returned flying low, and German jumped in the sea, helping Justman to swim while Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike Harrell, the flight mechanic, lowered a rescue basket.
Harrell hoisted Justman up in the basket, then dropped a hook for German. Greene and Quilliam radioed ahead for an ambulance and, once Justman was settled, flew to Lihu'e.
"He was saying things like, 'Thank God you guys are here; I love you guys,' " Greene said.
Eleven minutes after hoisting him out of the ocean, the Coast Guard turned Justman over to American Medical Response paramedics at Lihu'e airport, who took him to Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
Justman was treated in the emergency room then admitted to the hospital for observation.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
