Nelson died. The Streichs suffered minor injuries.

Even when they realized they were about to crash, neither he nor his daughter panicked, said Streich, 53, who owns a machine shop in Tacoma, Wash. He spoke at a Waikiki news conference yesterday.

"All of a sudden the plane dropped and he was losing control," said Streich, his daughter and wife, Karen, sitting at his side. "He got it back in control, and then it dropped again. At that point, of course, we knew something was wrong.

"I could see us headed down through the valley — through the cut — rocks on both sides and trees and brush on the right side."

"We weren't in a panic. It was strange. I was calm. Ashley was calm. We didn't say a word. We watched us go into the bank and the trees, and that's all I remember. We maybe blanked out for a few seconds."

For the next 2 1/2 hours, Streich and his daughter remained upside-down, so cramped inside the wreckage that they could not turn their heads to look at each other.

Throughout the ordeal, even as they could hear the pilot's dying breaths, both Streichs said they constantly tried to reassure each other.

"I love you ... I love you. ... Help is coming. ... Breathe deeply," was the constant refrain, Streich said.

Ashley said the most frightening part was actually the ride in a helicopter rescue basket before they were flown to a local hospital.

"You're just hanging by a rope and you look down and all there is is trees, and it's kind of nerve wracking," she said.

She said Nelson, 22, of Wisconsin, was silent the entire time they were trapped in the glider.

"We could hear him breathing, and we tried to talk to him to see how he was, but he wasn't responding," she said.

Although she never panicked, Ashley said after more than an hour of not being able to move, she began to get anxious.

Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada said the Streichs had to wait for a half-hour even after rescuers arrived two hours following the crash.

"The fact that they were upside-down and scrunched up — that's why we were really, really careful," Tejada said, adding that the glider came to rest on an incline.

"We couldn't just go in after them, because if the plane moved at all, it would move right on top of them. ... We needed to stabilize the aircraft."

Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said crews with the Federal Aviation Administration made several trips to the crash site yesterday to remove the wreckage and move it to a hangar at Dillingham Airfield.

The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the wreckage to determine the cause of the crash.

A preliminary visual examination of the glider showed that the cockpit was heavily damaged, officials said.

Yesterday's news conference was facilitated by the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai'i, which has assisted the Streich family since their ordeal.

The Streichs thanked the organization's president, Jessica Rich, for her help, and offered their appreciation to firefighters, police, the Coast Guard, the Army, Emergency Medical Services personnel and everyone involved in the rescue.

They also expressed their condolences to Nelson's family.

"I really want to thank everybody for my family being here," Karen Streich said.

She said the family, which has traveled to Hawai'i many times, intends to continue vacationing here until April 19 — and will take a flight to the Big Island.

Other than minor cuts and bruises and lots of aches and pains, John Streich said he and his daughter were recovering as well as could be expected from the "emotional roller coaster" ride of the past few days.

He said the accident would not deter him from taking another glider flight in the future.

"I would do it again," he said. "I have no reservations. It was a great flight — until the end. I would recommend it to anybody."

Ashley, a competitive swimmer and seventh-grader at Kopachuck Middle School in Gig Harbor, Wash., will celebrate her 13th birthday on Thursday. She wasn't quite so sure about another flight.

"Uh, maybe in two years," she said.