A Bali Hai Helicopter Tours helicopter with five people aboard missing since Friday afternoon slammed into a remote mountainside north of Kapalaoa Point eight miles north of Port Allen Harbor and burned “like a bad bon fire,” a Kaua‘i County
A Bali Hai Helicopter Tours helicopter with five people aboard missing since Friday afternoon slammed into a remote mountainside north of Kapalaoa Point eight miles north of Port Allen Harbor and burned “like a bad bon fire,” a Kaua‘i County search specialist told reporters Saturday.
The aircraft buried itself in the mountainside after the impact and burned “beyond recognition,” said Ehren Edwards, a member of the Kaua‘i Fire Department’s elite search and rescue team.
Edwards was aboard a county search helicopter that surveyed the wreckage from the air Saturday afternoon.
Rescue efforts were called off late Saturday afternoon and were set to begin again at 7 a.m. this morning.
When the crash occurred is not exactly known, but it is known that it did occur at an elevation of 3,500 feet on the western edge of the Lihu‘e/Koloa Forest Reserve. The reserve managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and located about eight miles from the helicopter’s home base at Hanapepe.
A company Web site noted that Bali Hai uses American-made Jet Bell Rangers, which seat four passengers. The company offers 45-minute tours and other tours ranging from 55 to 60 minutes.
A Coast Guard search helicopter crew first spotted the wreckage at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Believed aboard the downed helicopter are a couple from Germany, a 36-year-old man from the Mainland and a 30-year-old woman from the Mainland, all visitors, plus a pilot.
The pilot, who formerly flew with India’s air force, has flown tours for the past two months, Coast Guard Lt. Danny Shaw said.
“The pilot has over 4,000 hours of helicopter time,” Shaw said. “We do know he went through a one-month training period in Kaua‘i.”
Whether they and a fifth occupant of the downed helicopter, the pilot, survived is not known. The identities of the visitors and the pilot were not released.
The tour helicopter departed from Burns Airfield at Port Allen at 4 p.m. Friday and was scheduled to return to the West Kaua‘i airfield by 5 p.m.
The helicopter didn’t return, sparking a search by the Coast Guard, the Kaua‘i County Fire Department, the Pacific Missile Range Facilty and other commercial helicopter tour companies spread over the last two days.
On Saturday, Edwards flew over the crash site with two other county search specialists aboard a search helicopter used by the county.
Because of bad weather and because the crash site was socked in by thick clouds, Edwards said he couldn’t determine whether any one had survived the crash.
“I could only see for a minute. I can’t really say whether there are survivors,” Edwards told reporters from a county command post set up by Home Depot in Lihu‘e for the emergency. “I didn’t see any movement.”
Edwards and other firefighters were aboard an Inter-Island Helicopters Air 21 aircraft during the search, county officials said.
He said his “heart goes out to the family” who are eagerly awaiting word on the fate of those who were aboard the helicopter before it crashed.
Cyndi Ozaki, the county’s public information officer, said a family member of the 30-year-old woman who was aboard the down aircraft had already gone to the Bali Hai Tours headquarters in Hanapepe to find out what had happened.
The Kauai Hospice also has tried to console the family member, Ozaki said.
The American Red Cross also has called to offer assistance, she said.
Edwards said the search helicopter he was in “circled for hours” while he and other rescue personnel tried to conduct a visual survey of the damage of downed helicopter and tried to find signs of any survivors.
The search helicopter was about 150 to 200 feet from the crash site when a break in the clouds allowed them to see the wreckage, Edwards said.
Edwards said it appeared the helicopter had slammed into the mountainside, “was buried in it” and had caught fire.
Debris was strewn around the “impact zone,” and 30 to 40 feet above that area, Edwards said. “There were mostly burnt ferns,” Edwards said. “I saw half of a rotor.”
The helicopter had crashed against the side of the mountain that “was nearly vertical” and which was about 200 feet below a mountain ridgeline.
Edwards surmised the Bali Hai helicopter might have slid “20 to 30 feet” after the impact.
Search efforts by commercial helicopters and the county search helicopter were conducted throughout Saturday morning.
Edwards was with a second crew aboard the county search helicopter when the Coast Guard helicopter spotted the wreckage at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The county helicopter flew out of a command post the county had established in an open field by Home Depot in Lihu‘e.
The same helicopter left the command post site with another rescue crew at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
The crew were to assess any rescue or recovery effort that could take place on Sunday, Ozaki said.
She said no recovery or rescue operation was going to be conducted Saturday evening because “it is getting late” and because heavy rains and shifting cloud cover at the crash site posed a danger to searchers.
“The crew (that flew up at around 4:20 p.m.) will do further assessments to see how we will tackle this incident,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the safest way would be for rescuers to rappel from the mountain ridge down to the wreckage after the weather improves.
Edwards said it would be a mistake for the county rescue helicopter to conduct any search for survivors below the ridge; the helicopter might be caught in strong winds and slammed against the mountainside.
When the Bali Hai helicopter had not returned to Burns Field Friday evening, Federal Aviation Administration officials contacted the Coast Guard at 6:05 p.m. that day, reporting that the tour helicopter had not contacted them to close out its flight plan.
Shortly after 6 p.m., a Coast Guard helicopter began a search of Kaua‘i’s coastline and inland areas.
A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft also joined the search and suspended it after 8:30 p.m. when visibility became low.
The tour helicopter was headed to the Na Pali Coast, Hanalei Valley, Mt. Waialeale crater, and Hanapepe Valley, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.
A HH-65 Dolphin helicopter and the C-130 aircraft resumed searching at 5:35 a.m. Saturday, covering the areas the tour helicopter had planned to visit Friday, Coast Guard officials said in a news release.
Also assisting in Saturday’s search was a Navy H3-50 helicopter from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility and the county’s search helicopter.
As of 10 a.m. Saturday, three county fire fighters aboard a county search helicopter found no signs of the missing helicopter, Kaua‘i Fire Department Battalion Chief Mitchell Ikeda said.
Ikeda said nine to 11 tour helicopters conducted a search of the interior of the island Saturday morning prior to operating their own company tours.
Civilian aircraft, “or Good Samaritan” aircraft, also conducted searches on Friday, Johnson said.
A spokesman for Bali Hai Tours declined to comment on the search.
The crash is the second in little more than a year for Kaua‘i tour operators.
In July 2003, five people were killed when a Bell 206-B Jet Ranger operated by Jack Harter Helicopters crashed on the slopes of Mount Wai‘ale‘ale.
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
