The pilot of a Blue Hawaiian tour helicopter struggled to control his crippled aircraft before he made a hard landing Jan. 5 in Honokohau Valley on Maui, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released yesterday

None of the six people on the Eurocopter EC130B4 helicopter was seriously injured, although two passengers were treated for minor injuries.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board report, the helicopter left Kahului Airport at about 9:30 a.m. for a tour of the island. The trip normally takes an hour, but when the helicopter failed to return, Blue Hawaiian officials began to search for the aircraft, the board said.

The helicopter was spotted upright, but in a heavily wooded area, at 11:17 a.m. A Maui fire helicopter lowered rescue crews into the area, and the passengers were airlifted to awaiting ambulances.

In a written statement to the board, the pilot said he entered Honokohau Valley and slowed to show the passengers the falls. But the pilot reported he soon heard the main rotor warning alarm and saw that the rotor tachometer reading was declining, the report said.

As the engine began losing power and the helicopter continued to head upstream, the pilot said, there were no available landing sites, according to the board. The pilot turned the aircraft around and tried to reapply power, but the "low rotor horn" sounded again, the board said.

The board said the helicopter made a "hard force landing" in trees with the main rotor blades hitting the tree tops.

A report on the probable cause of the incident is not expected for months.

Blue Hawaiian officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. But on the day of the crash, company President Patti Chevalier said the unnamed pilot had been with the company for at least five years.

The board has yet to release a preliminary report on a Jan. 10 incident that involved a Maui tour helicopter. In that incident, a Eurocopter AS350BA helicopter operated by Sunshine Helicopter made a hard landing at about the 3,500-foot-level in Manawainui Valley, east of Kaupo.

Four passengers, two men and two women, escaped serious injury. The pilot's leg was hurt.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.