The Inter-Island Helicopters Hughes 500 craft forced to make an emergency landing in Hanalei during an attempted rescue mission has been plucked from its isolated resting place by another Inter-Island helicopter. The Huey that Inter-Island pilot-owner Ken D’Attilio acquired a
The Inter-Island Helicopters Hughes 500 craft forced to make an emergency landing in Hanalei during an attempted rescue mission has been plucked from its isolated resting place by another Inter-Island helicopter.
The Huey that Inter-Island pilot-owner Ken D’Attilio acquired a year ago to expand the company’s rescue capabilities had been on Big Island assisting with a koa logging operation. It was flown back to Kaua’i to airlift the disabled helicopter to its Port Allen Airport (Burns Field) base.
Ed Wagner piloted the Huey during the recovery, and Dennis Imamura handled the ground chores, D’Attilio said.
Insurance will cover the minor damage suffered by the $500,000 Hughes 500, which lost power while under the control of pilot Luca Rostagna while he and three Kaua’i County Fire Department rescue specialists were on their way to Na Pali Coast to rescue an injured hiker.
The downed crew was picked up by a Coast Guard helicopter from O’ahu Sunday just before sunset. The injured hiker was rescued at daybreak Monday by Wagner aboard another Inter-Island Hughes 500 and a different Fire Department crew.
While the Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the cause of the crash continues, D’Attilio is preparing to put the disabled helicopter in a container and ship it to the mainland for repairs. There are no facilities in Hawai’i to fix the twisted tail section the craft incurred from sliding down a valley wall a bit and getting stuck in mud.
The engine will be sent to the manufacturer in an attempt by the FAA to determine the cause of the failure, he said.
So that future Fire Department rescues and training aren’t compromised as a result of the Inter-Island helicopter being out of service, D’Attilio said he is bringing in another, more powerful Hughes 500, valued at $1.2 milliond.
D’Attilio said he probably would have handled the emergency landing the same way Rostagna did. He added that the hours of training paid off with correct responses from the pilot.
Asked to speculate on what may have caused the engine to lose power, D’Attilio said that when the fuel was drained from the downed helicopter, there didn’t appear to be anything amiss in the fuel. A fuel spout could be the culprit, he said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
