LIHU‘E — The National Transportation Safety Board released a report a few days ago stating that the pilot’s loss of control caused by “severe updrafts and downdrafts” is to blame for a small-aircraft crash last year that badly injured the
LIHU‘E — The National Transportation Safety Board released a report a few days ago stating that the pilot’s loss of control caused by “severe updrafts and downdrafts” is to blame for a small-aircraft crash last year that badly injured the pilot and a flight student.
The “light sport weight-shift-control airplane” crashed in the afternoon of Aug. 1, 2009 in a steep hillside 12 miles northwest of Lihu‘e, 45 minutes after taking off from Port Allen, Hanapepe.
“That pilot was stupid. He’s lucky to be alive,” said Harry Dalsey, a pilot who flies small planes for another tour company.
The NTSB reported that a safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot was on top of a broken cloud deck trying to find a hole to descend to a crater.
As the pilot descended into the hole, it closed up, and severe updrafts and downdrafts caused him to lose control of the aircraft, the report said.
“We’re supposed to stay away from the clouds,” said Dalsey, explaining that you can get disoriented or run into a mountain.
Pilot Thomas Defino, through his attorney, has denied any liability in the accident. Flight student Neil S. Shoemaker, a Virginia engineer whose leg was broken in two places during the accident, filed a negligence lawsuit a few weeks after the crash, in Honolulu federal court.
A jury trial is schedule for next September, and a first settlement conference is schedule for June.
According to the NTSB report, the pilot said that after reaching an altitude of about 3,000 feet, he begun a slow descent inside a crater in an area that “provided more than enough VFR (visual flight rules weather) to the ground below.”
The pilot stated that his aircraft became “violently rocked” in a matter of seconds. He held on the control bar and applied full power to try to bring the aircraft back to a calm area, but the control bar was ripped from his hands with “severe force.”
With the ground approaching and “all other opportunities exhausted,” the pilot pulled the aircraft’s emergency parachute about 200 to 300 feet above the ground, losing consciousness at that point.
The aircraft hit a hillside and its parachute became entangled in the surrounding trees, preventing the plane from sliding further down the cliff.
The student pilot who was flying in the same aircraft, however, had a slightly different story, according to the report.
As the aircraft headed toward the mountains and into overcast skies, the flight instructor said he found a hole in the clouds to drop down, according to the student’s statement, who also said that to him it looked more like a dark spot rather than a hole.
The student said another flight instructor for the same company flying nearby radioed them saying: “No, it’s closing up.” As soon as the aircraft entered the “hole” it stopped flying and started bouncing like “popcorn,” the student said in the statement.
Steve Dahmer and his wife, visitors from Rifle, Colo., took a tour last February from Birds in Paradise, the same company involved in the crash.
Dahmer said he felt safe the whole time he flew in the powered hang-glider, but his wife “wasn’t so comfortable.”
Each was flying in a different aircraft at the same time. At one point, between 5,000 and 6,500 feet there was some turbulence, but the pilots took them above the clouds, Dahmer said.
“I was a little more adventurous than my wife (would have liked),” said Dahmer, adding that his pilot, Gene Monnier, took him through the turbulence, skimmed some beaches and did some extra maneuvering. “I never felt unsafe.”
Despite that the tour is called a flight instruction, Dahmer said who really flies the machines are the pilots. “We were just strapped in as a passenger.”
Dahmer said it was a neat way to see the island. He mentioned that in New Zealand, a place where “they don’t have these ridiculous liability laws,” a tour company straps you to the bottom of a helicopter and have you swinging from there.
“Statistically speaking, how safe is it?” asked Dahmer, saying that baseball is rated one of the most dangerous sports. “No one is going to quit playing baseball,” he said.
The Birds in Paradise Web site says the company has been in business since 1990, and has performed over 19,000 flights.
Owner and pilot Gerry Charlebois said Birds in Paradise is the only powered hang-gliding company that has permits to operate out of the Port Allen Airport in Hanapepe, also called Burns Field.
Last week another powered hang-gliding accident, this time on the Big Island, claimed the life of pilot Tedd Robert Hecklin, 38, and his passenger, Kathryn Grace Moran, 37.
The Airborne Windsports X-912-L, the same aircraft involved in the Kaua‘i accident, fell into the waters of Kealakekua Bay Wednesday, flipping over apparently because of an updraft, witnesses at the scene said.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.
