Rescuer: Victims probably died instantly
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Kaua'i crash victim was 'wonderful lawyer' |
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
HA'IKU, Kaua'i — A Bell 206B JetRanger with five people aboard appears to have hit the mountainside hard when it crashed Friday, killing all on board almost certainly immediately, according to a veteran firefighter who led a dangerous recovery mission yesterday.
Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
"By going to two of these crashes already, I highly don't think there could be a survivor," said Capt. Shawn Hosaka, a 17-year firefighter and head of the department's rescue and hazardous materials unit. Some debris had been thrown as much as 50 yards from where the fuselage was, he said.
A father gave his son a better view to watch an Army Black Hawk helicopter land yesterday during recovery efforts after the crash of a Bali Hai Helicopter Tours aircraft on Kaua'i on Friday.
Until Hosaka's four-man team arrived at the scene yesterday, rescue personnel had officially kept open the possibility of survivors. The Army 68th Medical Company Black Hawk helicopter that lowered them to the mountainside had two medics on board to stabilize any surviving victims, but Hosaka said it was quickly obvious that there were none.
The rescue crew located four bodies yesterday. Hosaka would not speculate on where the fifth might be, although he said the terrain is very steep and dense with hip-deep ferns and shrubbery.
"We might have to search," he said.
The Black Hawk was to return this morning to drop a fresh Fire Department rescue team to continue recovery operations.
The Bali Hai Helicopter Tours aircraft disappeared while on a standard afternoon circle-island tour Friday.
A Coast Guard search helicopter located the wreckage Saturday afternoon, at an elevation of more than 3,000 feet — about 200 feet below and on the eastern side of the rim of a steep, rugged ridgeline between Mount Kahili and Mount Wai'ale'ale.
The company's tour map shows that its flights cross the ridge from east to west near that location.
Firefighters on Saturday and Sunday were only able to get glimpses of the crash site through the clouds and rain. Heavy wind made it impossible to land rescue crews from the comparatively light Hughes 500 helicopter the Fire Department uses for rescues.
The arrival of the sturdy Army Black Hawk helicopter yesterday morning, and a drop in wind speeds, permitted the insertion of Hosaka, rescue operator Lance Yamada and rescue specialists Roy Constantino and Ehren Edwards.
Hosaka said they were dropped in a rocky ravine a short distance from the wreckage.
He said the wreck is in mud on a 75-degree slope, with a vertical drop not far below it. Rescue crewmen stamped with their feet to make flat working platforms in the mud, and sometimes had to crawl to move safely from one spot to another. When moving, they were secured by ropes to small 'ohi'a trees on the slope, but they would unclip when working.
"Everybody's legs were shaking from trying to keep our footing," he said.
The crew was able to secure and fly two bodies off the mountainside during several hours of work yesterday. The identities of these victims had not been determined. Today, rescue crews would try to complete the recovery, Hosaka said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Nicole Charnon said the difficulties posed by the site is slowing the work of trying to determine what caused the wreck.
"We can't even look at the wreckage," Charnon said. "It may be the end of the week before it is taken off."
It was the third fatal helicopter crash on the ridges between those two peaks in a little more than six years. The National Transportation Safety Board has completed a final report on the first of those crashes in 1998, but has not yet produced a final report on a crash last year.
Asked if Federal Aviation Administration regulations for flying near Mount Wai'ale'ale might be reviewed in light of the repeated crashes, FAA Los Angeles-based public affairs officer Donn Walker said there is not enough information to support a review of its rules.
"We have absolutely no indication that there is any connection between these three accidents. We can't make a decision without the facts," he said.
Walker also noted that there are dozens of helicopters on Kaua'i that "take off every day and bring back their passengers safely."
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
