Plane crash probe to begin
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KULA, Maui — Federal transportation safety officials are expected to arrive on Maui today to begin an investigation into the cause of a twin-engine plane that crashed in a fireball on the slopes of Haleakala Sunday night, killing the pilot.
The Cessna 310, registered to WardAir Aviation Inc. of Kailua, O'ahu, crashed in a remote pasture at about 9:26 p.m., causing a blaze that was seen from as far away as Kihei. Maui police said the pilot's body was recovered yesterday morning. No one else was aboard the plane.
Officials did not immediately release the pilot's name. The Associated Press identified him as Ward Mareels, owner of Ward-Air Aviation.
County fire crews initially were dispatched to what was reported as a brush fire, but then authorities were told about a possible plane crash. The Maui Fire Department sent its rescue helicopter to the remote area, and the crew spotted the burning wreckage at 10:06 p.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Frank Tam.
The crash site at the 3,700-foot level above Keokea is inaccessible by vehicle, and department personnel hiked in darkness to the scene, where they extinguished a small fire.
Mareel's body was thrown 30 yards clear of the wreckage, officials said.
The Cessna took off from Kahului Airport at 9:18 p.m. Sunday and was headed to Kona when the Kahului air control tower lost radar and radio contact with the plane six minutes later, said Donn Walker, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
A native of Belgium, Mareels became a U.S. citizen and had lived in Hawai'i for more than 10 years, friends said. He was a former United Airlines pilot, with more than 20,000 hours of flying time, they said.
Friend Mike Swigart called Mareels "a much better than average pilot."
"He had been a pilot and a mechanic in Belgium before he moved to the United States, and he did a lot of flight training for some of the major airlines," Swigart said.
Ben Bland, a fire captain at the Kihei Fire Station, said he was returning to the firehouse from a call just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday when one of his crew members pointed to the flames on the mountain.
"It looked like a large fire," he said. The weather was "extremely clear," Bland said, but there was no moon and the mountain was "real black."
Haleakala has a history of aircraft crashes, Bland said, and aviators have told him the mountain comes up much faster than expected for many fixed-wing aircraft, especially on dark nights.
Anthony Manoukian, Maui County medical examiner, said an autopsy yesterday found the pilot had extensive injuries and likely died on impact.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator is expected to arrive on Maui today, said police Lt. Glenn Cuomo of the department's Criminal Investigation Division.
