An unidentified person looks over the crash site today in Ha'ena, Kaua'i. The accident left one person dead and four injured, three of them critically. Photos by AP Photo/Garden Island, Sheadon Ringor   A helicopter that crashed is shown today in Ha'ena, Kaua'i. It was the second fatal crash on the island in a 70-hour period.   Unidentified people tend to victims of the helicopter crash today.   Doug Manning

Two people have been taken to The Queen's Medical Center on O'ahu and are in critical condition; another is at Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai in critical condition and undergoing surgery; and one person was treated and released.

It was the second fatal crash of a Kaua'i tour helicopter in a 70-hour period.

Four people, including the pilot, died Thursday afternoon when a Heli USA A-Star helicopter crashed at about 3 p.m. on its way back to Princeville Airport after the pilot reported problems with his hydraulic system.

The 30-year-old pilot flying today's Inter-Island Tours' Hughes 500 helicopter reported mechanical problems about mid-way through the scheduled 50 to 55-minute tour.

It appears that the pilot tried to land the helicopter in the only vacant space for miles — a field at the YMCA's Camp Naue in Ha'ena. The area around the crash site site is surrounded by residential homes and foliage — from the beach to Kuhio Highway.

"It made a sound like a gun shot, but a deeper sound," said Maya Green of Ha'ena. "It wavered back and forth and then he got it under control and then it started spinning."

Frank Broderick, of Kilauea, said, "It seemed like to me the tail rotor had gone out and he was going down like he was trying to keep some sort of auto rotation thing going."

Mary Hunter Leach, also of Kilauea, saw the doomed helicopter and thought, " 'Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God,' because this just happened last week. It was really very emotional."

John Rodden, of Princeville, saw the helicopter struggling about three miles from the crash scene and described the helicopter's movement by moving his hand in a circle.

"I saw this helicopter going down like this: The cab around the tail and the tail around the cab," Rodden said.

Doug Manning was on the telephone when he heard the sound of the struggling engine. He looked outside his window and saw the Hughes 500 "drop straight out of the sky. It circled, it spun. He had absolutely no control whatsoever."

The helicopter appeared to have smashed through a small white picket fence and clipped branches from an overhanging false kamani tree with its main rotor blades.

The blue and gray helicopter landed on its right side, where the passenger died, said Manning, who was on the scene.

He said neighbors rushed to the area and emergency crews took the wounded out on stretchers and surfboards.