An April 25, 2006, letter from a Federal Aviation Administration inspector to Tora Flight told the operator that the FAA's Honolulu Flight Standards District Office had become aware that it "was providing air tours of Molokai, Maui and Lanai" and that "those operations required an air carrier certificate that Tora Flight did not possess." The agency issued a cease-and-desist order for the operator to stop flying air tours in violation of federal aviation regulations.

On April 30, 2006, a twin-engine Partenavia P68 operated by Tora Flight crashed shortly after takeoff from a private grass airfield on Molokai's west end. Two people were seriously injured, including the pilot, and three others sustained minor injuries.

The record of correspondence between the FAA and Tora Flight is detailed in a National Transportation Safety Board factual report on the accident.

Based on the report, the NTSB found the probable cause of the crash was pilot error. The report found the pilot had just 10 hours of experience flying at night.

On taking off from the grass field on Molokai, the pilot failed to climb quickly enough to deal with the sloping terrain, the NTSB said.

Tora Flight Adventure Club officials have not returned phone calls from The Maui News seeking comment on the NTSB report or to explain their operations. The NTSB report said the investigator in charge interviewed two tour agencies that book tours with Tora Flight. One reported booking more than 100 passengers a month for flights to Panda Ranch.

On the night of the crash, the aircraft was carrying four Japanese visitors who were flown to Molokai for a barbecue dinner at Panda Ranch after purchasing what was advertised as a "dinner and adventure," according to the NTSB report.

After the crash, West Molokai residents said they had complained regularly about the Panda Ranch operation, saying the evening flights were hazardous.

Tora Flight officials have maintained they did not need the air tour certification because its aircraft were used only to transport tourists to the Panda Ranch at Kaluakoi, not as air tours.

The company was operating with an FAA Part 91 certificate, which is intended primarily for recreational flights, limits point-to-point flights to 25 miles and does not allow scheduled commercial passenger carrying flights.

The NTSB report says the FAA began receiving complaints in August 2003 about Tora Flight operating an air tour without proper certification. At that time, a company representative told the FAA that Tora did not charge guests for air travel to Molokai. The matter was dropped until March 2005 when the FAA said it received more complaints on the same issue.

Then, in August 2005, the FAA told Tora it needed to get a certificate to fly air tours. Eight months later, the FAA sent Tora the cease-and-desist letter, ordering it to stop conducting air tours without the proper certification.

In a May 5, 2006, response to the FAA, a representative of Tora Flight sent a letter saying there was a discrepancy in the way federal aviation officials had interacted with the company. The representative quoted an Oct. 15, 2003, letter from an FAA inspector that said Tora Flight was in compliance with federal aviation regulations.

FAA officials have not responded to a request for information on the status of the complaints involving Tora Flight.

The NTSB finding of probable cause places blame for the crash on the pilot.

"During the initial climb, the pilot banked the airplane to the right, due to the upsloping terrain" as was standard procedure to lessen the amount of noise at the airstrip, says the NTSB report. "The airplane collided with the gradually upsloping terrain, coming to rest upright. The pilot did not believe he had experienced a loss of power . . . In his written report, the pilot said he only had 10 hours of total night-flying experience."

Several FAA inspectors examined the aircraft wreckage the day after the accident and found no mechanical problems with the airplane. An FAA inspector interviewed the pilot, who "was in agreement the accident was a result of pilot error."

The report listed the dark night condition as a factor in the accident.

The pilot was identified only as a 45-year-old man. He reportedly suffered rib fractures and other injuries and was treated at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. Four passengers identified as Japanese visitors – two women aged 33 and 39 and two men also aged 33 and 39 – also were flown to Oahu for medical treatment.