Kauai pilot’s mother
finds solace at isle

She attended the funeral
last week for Charles Lowe,
killed in a copter crash

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

It was after midnight on a Friday when Lou Solberg got the first call that her son, helicopter pilot Charles Lowe, was missing in a crash on Kauai.

From her home in Tucson, Ariz., she clung to the hope her son was still alive.

"It's like maybe this is not true yet, maybe this hasn't happened," she said.

"I sat up and waited all night. I watched CNN. At 5:30 a.m. they showed the crash area on Kauai."

Later that afternoon, Solberg got another call that her son's body had been recovered from a ridge near Waialeale Crater. Five passengers in Lowe's Ohana Tours helicopter also died in the crash.

"I think I just cried and thought of the things that would help me get through it," she said.

She read Scriptures and took comfort from her faith in God.

Then it came to her.

"He was in a place where he wanted to be, the most beautiful place he'd ever seen on this earth. He was doing what he wanted to do -- that was flying. And he was a Christian young man, and he was ready to be with his maker.

"I think I had to console myself after they foundil,30p,8p6 the body and I knew he was not on this earth anymore; and I said to myself those three things."

Her son's death on June 25 came on the heels of the deaths of her husband on May 31 and her mother in March.

The sorrow has been a test of her faith.

"Even though I know there's a big plan God has for our lives, I don't understand it, and it doesn't take away the pain," she said.

"Someday I'll know why. I don't know why. It is a test and I hope I'll pass it."

Solberg returned to Tucson Friday after funeral services for Lowe last week.

The trip to Kauai was her first.

She had actually planned to visit the week of the crash as a way of dealing with her husband's death, but another relative came to visit her in Tucson so she stayed home.

"I had talked to Chuck and said I need to get away, so I think I'll come and sit on the beach," Solberg remembered. "I could have been on that (helicopter) trip. Who knows?"

While she was in Kauai, Solberg had no desire to go up in a helicopter and view the crash site.

"We were at Waimea Canyon and saw the clouds roll in. There were three helicopters in the area flying in and out of the clouds, and there was kind of a mystical feeling," she said.

"Where's the helicopter now? You couldn't see it. You could get an idea of what could happen when the weather rolls in. That was enough."

Lowe, who was 45 when he was killed, grew up in Oklahoma City.

He was the oldest of three brothers.

He volunteered for the Navy rather than be drafted, and he became a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot.

"He had a lot of white-knuckle stories about rescuing people," Solberg said.

Lowe has a 12-year-old daughter by his first wife.

While stationed at the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in 1992, Lowe met and married his second wife, Ann, in Kekaha.

"He was one little sailor who saw the world. When he retired, he just wanted to go back to Kauai. Of all the places in the world, he thought it was the most beautiful."

Lowe got a job with Ohana Helicopters and had flown some 250 tours in four months, Solberg said.

He and his wife returned to the same place in Kekaha that Lowe had rented while he was stationed at Barking Sands.

"That little village is a community. They love each other. They look out for each other," Solberg said. "They fed us, they gave us love, they gave us presents when we left."

During the two weeks she spent on Kauai, Solberg said she and her two other sons could understand why Lowe loved the island.

"It was the beauty of the island, the shadows on the mountains, the moon on the ocean, the floral, all of it, I'm sure.

"I think both the boys and I understand what drew him back. There was the people. It was paradise."

The funeral service for Lowe was held at the Kalaheo Missionary Church last Monday.

He was buried in the Kauai Veterans Cemetery with full military honors, including a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.

But Solberg said the most emotional moment of the day came when someone played Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of the song "In dis life."

"When he sang, 'I was loved by you,' that was comforting to Ann, that she had been loved by him. It was something for the wife and I felt good."