The pilot, Glen Lampton, 43, and a Wisconsin couple survived the crash, which killed three other passengers.

The NTSB report said other pilots reported limited visibility due to rain near Ka'ilio Point, but they were able to descend to between 100 and 300 feet above ground to get out of the rain. One of those, the pilot of a Hughes MD500 tour helicopter, said he turned around in the rainstorm and had dropped to 100 feet above ground when he managed to break out into clearer skies.

In one of the key mysteries of the Heli USA crash, Lampton reported he "suddenly saw a MD500 (helicopter) coming straight for me" as he approached Ka'ilio Point, but that his own elevation was 2,000 feet. The Wisconsin passengers, Karen and Bill Thorson Jr., said they saw a helicopter believed to be the MD500, but that it was far below them.

Karen Thorson's father, Laverne Clifton, 68, was killed in the crash along with Mary Soucy, 62, and Catherine Baron, 68, both of Portland, Maine.

The NTSB preliminary report did not shed any light on the discrepancy in the accounts. A final report detailing the probable cause of the helicopter crash is not anticipated for at least a year.