|
Pilot is killed
in Mokuleia
tour glider crash
Two passengers of the newly
licensed pilot are rescued
from the Mokuleia wreck
A sightseeing glider crashed on a mountain above Dillingham Airfield yesterday, killing its 22-year-old pilot and leaving two slightly injured passengers stuck in the overturned craft for more than two hours.
Friends identified the pilot as Tyler Nelson and said he had gotten his pilot's license to carry passengers just two to three weeks ago.
The glider's passengers, described as a man in his 50s and his daughter between 10 and 12 years old, squeezed through a broken window in the aircraft with help from rescuers about 3:45 p.m., more than two hours after their craft was reported overdue.
Honolulu Fire Department rescuers removed the body of pilot Tyler Nelson, 22, killed in yesterday's glider accident in the mountains above Dillingham Airfield.
"I'd consider myself blessed to be up there and survive," said fire Capt. Kenison Tejada after describing the extent of damage to the craft.
He said the plane, which was perched upside down on a hill with its tail sticking straight up, was first spotted by a pilot who had gone up to look for the missing Schweizer SGS 2-32, which belonged to Soar Hawaii Sailplanes Inc.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, and company officials declined to comment.
Rescue and state transportation officials could not say whether overcast skies and winds of up to 15 miles an hour at the airfield contributed to the accident.
But state Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said that sky-diving companies at Dillingham canceled some flights yesterday because of the weather.
Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board officials are expected to inspect the glider's wreckage today.
The time of the glider's takeoff was not released, but Ishikawa said the craft was 30 minutes overdue by 1:15 p.m., when the Fire Department was called. Rescuers had some difficulty getting to the wreckage because of the mountainous terrain and high winds.
He was pronounced dead by emergency medical services personnel at 4:16 p.m. after being transported to Dillingham from the crash site. Friends said the pilot had moved to the islands from Wisconsin in December.
"He was living life to the fullest," said Jesse Savage, a friend of Nelson's in Madison, Wis., who had spoken to him in the last month. "He was passionate in all things he did."
Savage said Nelson was survived by his parents and an older sister.
He said Nelson did not have a pilot's license when he left Wisconsin.
Don Rohrbach, who recently retired from Mr. Bill's Original Glider Rides at Dillingham after 28 years, said the area where the glider crashed is known as the "toilet bowl" because of the unpredictable winds that flush up and down the mountainsides.
But, he added, "gliders have to be the safest possible form of flying."
The most recent glider accident at Dillingham was on Dec. 23, when a Schweizer SGS 1-26B "landed long and collided with terrain," according to an NTSB report. The glider's pilot, flying with the Honolulu Soaring Club, was uninjured, but the glider was "substantially damaged."
In January 2003 a private pilot crash-landed a rented glider at Mokuleia Beach Park and suffered minor injuries.
A passenger was helped to safety after she was transported down.
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