LIHUE — Kauai police on Thursday identified the pilot and passenger killed in Tuesday’s light sport aircraft crash in Waiakamoo Valley, near Polihale Beach. Piloting the aircraft was 54-year-old Kapahi resident Gerry Charlebois, owner of the Birds in Paradise motorized
LIHUE — Kauai police on Thursday identified the pilot and passenger killed in Tuesday’s light sport aircraft crash in Waiakamoo Valley, near Polihale Beach.
Piloting the aircraft was 54-year-old Kapahi resident Gerry Charlebois, owner of the Birds in Paradise motorized hang gliding and tour company. His passenger was identified as 53-year-old Mark McKenzie, of Pickering, Ontario, Canada.
Tuesday morning’s deadly accident was the first light sport aircraft crash on Kauai since 2011, when two separate crashes resulted in four fatalities. Two people were killed in a crash off Kauai’s South Shore in February of that year.
Then in May, a pilot and passenger died when a light sport aircraft crashed in waters off Kauai’s North Shore.
The Kauai Police Department continues to investigate the incident, along with personnel from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board in Honolulu.
