Missing tour helicopter found
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i—A U.S. Coast Guard search helicopter's crew this afternoon spotted the burned wreckage of a tour helicopter after a two-day search that involved at least a dozen aircraft.
A Bali Hai Bell 206 chopper with five people aboard smashed into a cloud-shrouded near-vertical cliff and burned Friday afternoon, with no apparent survivors.
Clouds and rain obscured the crash site, which was not discovered until 2 p.m. today. A Kaua'i Fire Department rescue team hovered near the site all afternoon before getting a brief opening in the weather and concluding that it was unlikely anyone survived.
"It appeared it basically ran right into the mountain and burned. It was burned beyond recognition," said fire rescue specialist Ehren Edwards, of Kalaheo.
A second fire department crew went up in the late afternoon aboard an Inter-Island Helicopters Hughes 500 helicopter to assess the site and determine how best to approach the recovery of the bodies. Fire department incident commander Mitchell Ikeda said a rescue crew would return to the site this morning to attempt the recovery.
The identities of the pilot and passengers were not released. County information officer Cyndi Ozaki said the passengers included a couple from Germany and a 36-year-old Mainland man and a 30-year-old Mainland woman. Bali Hai helicopters officials said the firm had no comment about the crash.
The tour helicopter left the Port Allen airfield a little after 4 p.m. Friday, and was last seen about 5 p.m. flying by the Koke'e State Park, which would have been about halfway through a normal tour. There were no further sightings and no radio transmissions from the aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration called the Coast Guard about 6:05 p.m. to report an overdue helicopter. The Coast Guard and local helicopter firms launched a late afternoon search effort, but found nothing. The missing aircraft was not equipped with an emergency radio beacon, which many aircraft are required to carry.
"They were operating under a waiver from the FAA" that allowed the Bali Hai helicopter to fly without a transponder, said Lt. Danny Shaw, Coast Guard senior rescue coordinator.
"It might have been a lot easier if it had had an ELT (emergency locator transmitter) on board," Shaw said.
Close to a dozen helicopters took to the air over Kaua'i at dawn today, including two Coast Guard choppers, a Navy helicopter, the Hughes 500 leased by the county fire department, and several volunteer helicopters from local tour firms. The search was overseen by a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules, which flew overhead and provided communications, command and control.
"As early as 6 a.m., we had 11 helicopters up in the air, searching," said a Kaua'i Fire Department spokesman.
The Bell JetRanger helicopter is a five-seat aircraft, capable of carrying a pilot and four passengers. Bali Hai normally runs 45-minute and 55-minute tours clockwise around the central mountains of Kaua'i, flying across Gay & Robinson cane fields, the Waimea Canyon, Koke'e State Park, Kalalau Valley and along the Na Pali cliffs before turning at the North Shore coastline with stops at the Wai'ale'ale crater and Manawaipuna Fall waterfall.
Based on that flight plan, the aircraft appears to have been nearing the end of its tour, flying between Wai'ale'ale and the waterfall when it crashed. The flight map on Bali Hai's Web site shows the path crossing a ridge between Mt. Kahili and Wai'ale'ale near the crash site.
Rescue specialist Edwards said the helicopter appeared to have hit the cliffside about 200 feet below the top of the ridge, at an elevation of about 3,500 feet.
A National Transportation Safety Board crash investigator was expected on the island yesterday to attempt to determine the cause of the crash.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
