Tour copter put down in pasture

Associated Press

HILO, Hawai'i — The pilot and six passengers on a tour helicopter escaped serious injury when the aircraft made a hard landing in a pasture in the Honoka'a area of the Big Island shortly after noon yesterday.

A woman passenger on the Blue Hawaiian helicopter was treated for a sprained wrist at the North Hawai'i Community Hospital in Waimea and released, Blue Hawaiian President Patty Chevalier said.

She said the pilot, whose name wasn't given, used his cell phone and notified the company that the helicopter had landed in upper Pa'auilo, about 200 yards mauka of Kukuipapa Road.

County paramedics took four passengers to the North Hawai'i Community Hospital.

The helicopter is an A-Star and was on a routine island tour, leaving the Waikoloa helicopter pad at 12:15 p.m. to fly down the Hamakua Coast to Hilo.

Details on the cause of the helicopter's hard landing were not immediately available.