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Doomed jet
hit 100 feet below
Molokai peak
Initial federal report says the
By Gary Kubota
crew saw the airport and
began flying by sight
Star-BulletinWAILUKU -- If a private jet had been 100 feet higher, it would not have slammed into a hill, killing six people, a preliminary report indicates.
The National Transportation Safety Board report notes that radar sighted the airplane at an altitude of 1,800 feet as it approached Molokai Airport from the southwest on the night of May 10.
At about that time, the pilot stopped flying by instruments and began flying by sight.
The last radio transmission came about 8:30 p.m. when the two-member flight crew reported they could see the airport. The last radar contact with the plane was at 8:31 p.m.
The Sabreliner corporate jet crashed at about the 1,300-foot level, near the top of a 1,400-foot mountaintop, about 3.3 miles southwest of the airport. The landing gear was up at the time of the crash, the report says.
Federal investigator Howard Plagens said he did not expect to release what was on the voice recorder box retrieved from the crash until the issuance of a final report.
The airplane arrived on Maui at 7 p.m. on a flight from Christmas Island and made a refueling stop at Kahului Airport before proceeding to Molokai.
Pilot William Marr and co-pilot Jason Miller were informed by a controller in Honolulu that they would have to fly by visual approach to Molokai Airport.
The air traffic control tower on Molokai closes at 6 p.m., but pilots can activate landing lights by radio. The controller informed the crew that the winds were blowing at 9 miles an hour and the sky was clear.
Dental records were used to confirm the identities of the victims -- Macy Price Sr., 69, and his 38-year-old son, Macy Price Jr., both of Golden, Colo.; William Marr, 63, and his 63-year-old wife, Laurel, of Clearlake, Iowa; Jason Miller, 28, of Newton, Kan.; and Delilah Deterding, 20, of Argentina.
