Plane crashes
off Big Island

The pilot and all 4 passengers
survive the ditching along
the rocky Paauilo coastline

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

A private, twin-engine tour plane crashed off the Big Island's rugged Hamakua coast today, putting five people in the water.

The pilot and four passengers -- three men and two women -- were picked up by Big Island Fire Department helicopters and taken to North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea. One person was flown there by helicopter; the others went by ambulance.

Waiakea Fire Capt. Ted Van Gelder said the five people seemed to have only suffered "superficial wounds.

"One woman had a cut above her eye and one male had swelling above his eyes. But they were all very calm. They just wanted to get out of the water," he said.

The Coast Guard said the aircraft was a twin-engine Cessna 337, owned by Mokulele Flight Service in Kona. The company declined to comment on the accident.

The Cessna ditched about 100 yards off Paauilo, about 29 miles northwest of Hilo, in about 100 feet of water along a rocky coastline. Van Gelder said his helicopter arrived at the crash site at 8:25 a.m. and two firefighters were placed in the water to help the victims climb into a billy pugh net, which hangs about 75 feet below the aircraft.

The victims were taken two at a time a quarter mile inland to a landing zone. Van Gelder estimated that the five people were in the water for about 45 minutes. "All of them were wearing yellow life vests."

He said the pilot did "an outstanding job in prepping his passengers. He said he didn't have much time and had to decide whether to land on land or in the ocean and chose the ocean because there were too may trees and poles in the area."

Van Gelder said one of the couples was from Portugal and the woman didn't speak English.

Last August, a twin engine 10-seat Piper Navajo Chieftan crashed in Hilo Bay killing one woman. The pilot and seven other passengers escaped injuries.

The twin-engine plane was on an around-the-island tour starting in Kona when a fire in the right engine and possibly other difficulties forced pilot Nicholas Damis to ditch the plane.