LIHU‘E – Strong winds in higher elevations prevented the recovery of any further wreckage Saturday from the wreck of a Bali Hai Helicopter Tours helicopter. Nicole Charnon, NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigator in charge of an investigation into the
LIHU‘E – Strong winds in higher elevations prevented the recovery of any further wreckage Saturday from the wreck of a Bali Hai Helicopter Tours helicopter.
Nicole Charnon, NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigator in charge of an investigation into the crash, held a press briefing Saturday afternoon.
“There are no new wreckage parts, and we haven’t had an opportunity to go through the pieces recovered (on Friday). We’ll do that tomorrow,” Charnon said.
Among the parts not recovered are the tail rotor and one of the main rotor blades of the Bell 206B Jet Ranger, she said.
The investigator said that investigators have been busy going through records and interviewing people including the widow of the helicopter pilot as well as pilots of several other tour helicopter companies who fly on Kaua‘i.
The pilot’s flight log has been obtained from his widow whom Charnon described as “very cooperative, although distraught.” A surviving daughter did not accompany her here.
Additionally, the investigators have been going through the special regulations that apply to Kaua‘i tour helicopters that were approved by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), Charnon said.
Based on these findings, Charnon said the pilot was apparently “off route. It’s okay to be off route, but the minimum height clearance of 1,500 feet applies.”
“He was also observed by other local tour pilots to have crossed that same ridge at least twice that date,” Charnon said.
Charnon said that the investigators are in the process of obtaining both civilian and military radar data from the time of the crash, but it is the weekend, and without the radar data, it is hard to say at what height the aircraft was flying.
More findings will be presented at another press briefing Sunday afternoon, she said.Charnon said she plans to look into the fact that three tour helicopters have crashed into mountains on the windward side of Kauai since 1998.
The bodies of the pilot and four visitors who died in the Sept. 24 crash of the Bali Hai Helicopter Tours aircraft have been recovered.
County officials identified four of the victims as Shankar Tummala, 39, of Kauai, the pilot; Willy Braun, 59, and Heike Braun, 38, of Germany, and Tamara Zytkowski, 30, of Avon, Ohio. Family and friends identified the other victim as Thomas Huemmer, 36, a lawyer from Avon, Ohio,
Tummala formerly flew with India’s air force and had flown tours on Kauai for two months, according to Coast Guard Lt. Danny Shaw. Charnon saidTummala received civilian helicopter training in Detroit, and his wife and at least one child were still living in Michigan at the time of the crash.
Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) and dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
