A sixth body still is missing
By Trish Moore
at the scene near the rim of
Kauai's Waialeale Crater
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- Crews today found the bodies of three adults and two children killed in a helicopter crash, and searchers were trying to locate the sixth person who was on the chopper.
"It's very hard for us. We were holding out hope until this morning that we would get people out alive," said Mike Stoner, business manager for Ohana Helicopters.
Three bodies were flown to the airport this morning, and the Fire Department was waiting for a break in the weather before removing any more bodies or wreckage.Officials said the sixth person was likely killed in the crash.
"It appeared the aircraft was in powered flight upon impact," said Federal Aviation Administration investigator Joel Koff, who surveyed the site from the air this morning.
He said the most likely cause of the crash was bad weather and poor visibility, which caused the pilot to become disoriented.
"The weather was extremely bad. He probably shouldn't have been up there, is all I can say at this point," Koff said.
After attempts to reach the site were hampered by foul weather yesterday, crews set out again this morning. They arrived shortly after 7 a.m.
Meanwhile, Ohana Helicopters flew a group of family members over the wreckage early today.
The same company operated the A-Star 350BA helicopter that crashed yesterday, leaving a 100-
foot-long skid mark on a steep ridge about a mile east of the crater rim.
Four adults and two children were on the helicopter tour yesterday: pilot Chuck Lowe, Pauline Muse, 50, Rebecca Muse, 9, Andrew Yang, 10, and John and Maxine Sipin.
The Muses and Yang were part of an extended family on vacation from Lake Oswego, Ore.
The Sipins were a husband and wife from Ohio.
The Ohana helicopter was nearing the end of a routine 55-minute circle island tour with two other company aircraft flying just minutes ahead.
The lead pilots lost sight of the helicopter and they lost radio communication with Lowe at about 9:20 a.m., Stoner said.
When the helicopter Lowe was flying didn't return, the other pilots flew back to search the area and notified officials when they couldn't find the aircraft, Stoner said.
It took searchers several hours yesterday to find the wreckage on a remote, narrow ridge above a waterfall.
The tour left Lihue at 8:43 a.m. and an emergency locator beacon aboard the craft began emitting a signal about 10:30 a.m., said Thomas Rea, the Federal Aviation Administration's Pacific representative.
Rescue efforts were hampered by dense clouds yesterday.
"I never got a good view," Coast Guard aviator Lt. Robert Ward said yesterday."I could see the front part of the helicopter and a streak of debris down the hillside."
The tour had approached Waialeale from the north side, flying along the Hanalei River.
After heading over Hanalei Ridge, Lowe radioed the pilot in the helicopter ahead that he was changing his course because the cloud cover was too heavy, Battalion Chief Paul Silva said.
That was the last the pilot was heard from, according to Silva.
Two Federal Aviation Administration investigators were on Kauai yesterday, and officials with the National Transportation Safety Board will probably be joining the investigation, Rea said.
Investigators will be looking at what, if any, distance from the ground is required for helicopter tours in the area and whether the aircraft was in compliance.
Rea said the pilot called federal aviation officials to notify them about a standard departure from Lihue Airport.
"We had no other contact with him," Rea said.Rea said although the pilot was certified to fly by navigational instruments, he was flying by visual flight rules that morning, as is normally done on tours on Kauai.
He said the tours also fly without filing a flight plan.
Ohana Helicopters has been in business since 1986 and never had any problems with the 1994 model aircraft, said Stoner.
Geri Williams of Pacifica, Calif., took a tour on Island Helicopters this morning. She and her family went on the tour even after they heard about the accident.
"It was a little scary, but we figured it was just a freak accident. We knew they had a good safety record," she said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Gary T. Kubota
contributed to this report.
The high point of vacation
turns into tragedyFamilies spend a hard day and
By Craig Gima
night fearing for their loved ones
Star-BulletinIT was to be a highlight of a family vacation, a 55-minute helicopter adventure around Kauai from Nawiliwili Harbor through Waimea Canyon, the Na Pali Coast, back through Hanalei Valley and Mount Waialeale to Lihue.
Three helicopters from Ohana Helicopter Tours took off minutes apart at 8:40 yesterday morning. But about an hour later, only two had returned.
The third helicopter, with pilot Charles Lowe, husband and wife John and Maxine Sipin from Ohio, and a visiting family from Oregon, Pauline Muse and two children, Rebecca Muse, age 9, and Andrew Yang, age 10, had taken off last.
This morning, Muse and Yang family members listened as officials described the wreckage.
Afterward, family members gathered in a circle, cried, and shared boxes of tissue paper.
The wife of pilot Lowe was brought to the airport in an Ohana Helicopters tour van.
Later in the morning, she prayed with a grief counselor in front of a large window looking out on the empty runway.
Mike Stoner, business manager for Ohana Helicopters, said Andrew Yang's mother and other relatives went up in a helicopter with two Kauai hospice volunteers today.
"She wanted to see that, the crash site, so she could have closure," Stoner said.
"I believe it was helpful to her."
The Kauai police chaplain and hospice volunteers brought coffee and juice and helped comfort the family members at the airport.
"We're trying to make the family comfortable. They're really working hard to keep them updated," said Kaui police chaplain Phil Spence.
News media were asked not to take pictures of the family. Later, family members were taken to an undisclosed location to grieve in private.
Yesterday, some family members lashed out in anger, grief, and frustration because rescuers could not reach the crash site.
"They're kind of distraught that the search is taking a little longer than expected," said Paul Silva, Kauai Fire Department battalion chief, yesterday.
"The weather is not cooperating."
Toward the end of the day, a large helicopter carrying two Navy crew members and three Kauai Fire Department search-and-rescue workers headed into the clouds for one last attempt to reach the wreckage.
But the clouds never lifted, the helicopter did not get a chance to reach the wreckage, and it came back.
The mother of one of the missing children watched the helicopter return, looking for any hope that there had been a rescue.
One by one, the rescuers left the helicopter, but they did not bring out any survivors.
The mother, whom officials would not identify, turned and walked away from a large window to the arms of another family member.
Afterward, a Coast Guard lieutenant explained to reporters what he had seen of the wreckage and of the heavy cloud cover and rough terrain of the crash site.
The mother wandered over and listened intently.
Then she demanded to know why the pilots were not going back for another attempt to reach possible survivors.
"If there are survivors up there, they are not worth the risk?" she asked.
The lieutenant explained that it would be too dangerous to use night-vision goggles to search, and that survivors would not be in danger from predators or freezing.
"I can put myself in their spot," Lt. Robert Ward said afterward.
"And how I would want someone to talk to me, is how I would want to talk to them."
Mount Waialeale respected
By Pat Omandam
as treacherous territory
Star-BulletinThose familiar with Mount Waialeale say the site of yesterday's crash of an Ohana Helicopter Tours aircraft is rugged terrain that even experienced hikers avoid.
Rob Culbertson, a volunteer coordinator with the Sierra Club on Kauai, said the crash site is treacherous territory, with no established trails to follow. "It's not a place for the itinerant hiker," he said. "We don't go up there as a matter of course because we respect the dangers and the fact that there are no trails."
The crash site, a mile from Waialeale Crater, is in an area popular with helicopter tours because of its scenic waterfalls.
Tom Telfer, Kauai district wildlife manager for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the east face of Waialeale is steep and wet, with a thick growth of forest everywhere.
Mount Waialeale is also one of the wettest spots on Earth, Culbertson said.
"Waialeale catches everything like a magnet. It's a beacon for any clouds, any kind of wet weather," he said.
Thomas Rea, regional spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said there have been no reported problems with the flight path used for Kauai helicopter tours.
Pilot's dream of Kauai
Star-Bulletin
life is shatteredRetired Navy helicopter pilot Charles Lowe was happy to be back on Kauai with his wife after living a few years elsewhere, says a friend at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
It was his dream to retire on the island, said Geri Norby, bartender at Shenanigan's on the base.
Michael Stoner, the business manager for Ohana Helicopters, said Lowe had flown with Ohana Helicopters for less than three months.
"He was a very nice warm outgoing gentleman," Stoner said.
"He was a terrific kind of personality. He really appreciated life," Norby said.
She said Lowe, who was a lieutenant, was known for being an outstanding pilot.
"So that's why it was so terribly shocking," Norby said.
Kauai helicopter pilots form
By Lori Tighe
tight-knit community
Star-BulletinWaiting for word about the overdue Ohana Helicopters chopper was painful for a group of Kauai tour pilots.
"This is a very tight-knit community, and we find this very concerning," the owner of Air Kauai Helicopter Tours said yesterday afternoon. "Ohana is a very good company."
Sensitive over publicity, helicopter company operators interviewed for this story declined to give their names.
Safari Helicopters continued flying tours yesterday as pilots searched for Ohana's chopper, said its female operator.
"We've been flying all day, doing the tours and looking at the same time."
Crews searching for the hours-overdue Ohana helicopter finally located the wreckage about 2:30 p.m. yesterday on a steep ridge about a mile east of the Waialeale Crater rim.
A helicopter missing for three hours is "very unusual," said the operator of Hawaii Helicopters in Princeville.
Air Kauai's policy considers helicopter pilots overdue if they are 15 minutes late, and missing if they are 30 minutes late.
Rainy weather all week caused Hawaii Helicopters to cancel about half of its scheduled flights.
"But this is Kauai where it rains every day, not Arizona," said an Inter-Island Helicopters operator. Pilots frequently fly in the rain.
Helicopter crashes that resulted in fatalities or serious injuries: Other crashes
1997
May 10: Two were killed when a Hughes 369D crashed in Puako on the Big Island.
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
