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Plane may be
raised from Hilo
Bay today

The body of missing passenger
Laveta Rose Reynolds
may be inside

---

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

HILO -- Commercial divers coordinating with a Sikorsky SK-61 helicopter will attempt today to raise a Piper Navajo Chieftain from 80 feet of water where it ditched Friday at the entrance to Hilo Bay, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said this morning.

The divers will first determine whether the body of missing passenger Laveta Rose Reynolds, 61, is in the plane, said the investigator, Bob Crispin.

If so, a decision will be made whether to remove the body first or to wait until the plane is brought to the surface.

Reynolds is the only person unaccounted for among the pilot and eight passengers who were in the plane when a fire in the right engine contributed to an emergency ditching off Honolii Beach Park about 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Crispin said passengers told him that Reynolds' vest was inflated inside the aircraft, which would have made leaving the aircraft difficult for her.

Crispin spent part of yesterday interviewing the survivors at Kona International Airport, where the plane's operator, Big Island Air, is headquartered. He also completed a review of the records of the aircraft and the pilot.

He was to arrive in Hilo in time for a 9:30 a.m. meeting today at the Civil Air Patrol hangar to coordinate with salvage operations.

Perry Brown, an agent for the company that insured the plane, will be in charge of raising it, he said. Brown was planning to bring in a big Sikorsky and a McDonnell/ Hughes 500 helicopter to be used as a spotter for the Sikorsky, Crispin said.

The location of the plane was fixed using a buoy and Global Positioning System coordinates following a depth sounding and sonar search of the area by the Coast Guard.

A team of divers will put a sling under the plane to lift it to the surface. The aluminum structure of the aircraft, in contact with salt water, will begin to corrode the second it hits the air, Crispin said.

"It sounds like a giant Alka-Seltzer," he said.

The corrosion means it would be difficult to repair the plane for flight in the future.

Once the plane is lifted and drained of water, it will be carried in the sling to the airport, where an attempt will be made to lower the landing gear so it can be set down normally. If the gear is stuck, some other provision for cradling the plane on the ground will be made, he said.

If Reynolds' body is found, fire department personnel, as representatives of the county coroner, will be in charge of that aspect of the operation, Crispin said. In Hawaii County the police chief is the coroner.

Accounts from witnesses are consistent that there was a fire in the right engine, he said. It was seen through louvers in the cowling that covered the engine, meaning no flames were leaping out of the covering.

Witnesses described the smoke as grayish-white, suggesting a possible oil fire, Crispin said. If fuel had been burning, the smoke would have been black.

Despite the fire, the remaining engine should have been strong enough to keep the plane in the air. There are "numerous possibilities" as to why that did not happen, but at this point it would only be speculation as to what caused the loss of power, Crispin said.