DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
A City and County ambulance left the Army's assault training school yesterday in Wahiawa. Three people were injured when a Hughes 500 from Cherry Helicopters crashed in the Koolau Mountains.
Chopper crash hurts The Federal Aviation Administration plans today to interview the civilian helicopter pilot whose Hughes 500 crashed in the remote area of the Koolau Mountains bordering Schofield Barracks' East Range and Kahana Valley.
3 civilians in Koolaus
By Gregg K. Kakesako and Leila Fujimori
gkakesako@starbulletin.com lfujimori@starbulletin.comInjured were three civilians, including two passengers employed by the University of Hawaii Pacific Cooperative Studies unit and the pilot employed by the helicopter's owner, Cherry Helicopters.
The helicopter had been hired to ferry civilian environmental specialists to the remote area "to conduct a routine quarterly visit to monitor endangered species in our training area," Troy Griffin, Army spokesman, said. Search and rescue helicopters spotted the wreckage about 11 a.m., he said.
Tweet Coleman, FAA spokeswoman, said the pilot, whom she did not identify, had just dropped off a female passenger about 10:20 a.m. yesterday.
The Army said the accident occurred at the Puu Kaaumakua summit where the 25th Division's East Range meets the Oahu national forest refuge at the nearly 700-foot elevation of the Koolau Mountains.
The helicopter apparently got caught in some vines, Coleman said, and did what she described as a "dynamic roll" when it lost its power."It came to rest about 100 yards from the spot where it took off," Coleman said.
She said that FAA investigators couldn't get to the crash site because of the heavy terrain.
Coleman said the FAA today also plans to review the maintenance logs of the helicopter.
Honolulu Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said heavy winds may have contributed to the accident, and made the rescue difficult.
HFD's helicopter, Air 1, transported two rescue personnel to the summit, where they descended using a "jungle penetrator," a weighted metal device to go through the forest canopy, rather than a basket.
A witness saw the helicopter tumble down the mountainside just after dropping the woman off on the ridge, Tejada said. The aircraft landed on its side 100 feet below the ridge on a ledge, Tejada said.
The HFD pilot estimated the elevation of the ridge between 1,800 to 2,000 feet, Tejada said.
HFD personnel rescued the woman and the pilot from the ridge, while the Army's larger, more stable Black Hawk helicopter and federal firefighters provided assistance to the two men on the ledge on the steep cliff, Tejada said.
When HFD rescuers arrived, the pilot was on the ridge, Tejada said.
No information was available on the condition of the helicopter.
Griffin said the pilot and his three passengers were first taken to a triage center set up at the 25th Division's Air Assault School off California Avenue in Wahiawa.
Taken by ambulance to Wahiawa General Hospital were two victims, including the pilot, who was admitted in fair condition with head and leg injuries and later released. Passenger Matthew Keir, 28, suffered a few minor scrapes and bruises, and was treated and released.
The third victim, a 24-year-old man, was transferred first to St. Francis Hospital and then later taken to Queen's Medical Center for further tests, where he was in fair condition last night.
Because of the heavy brush cover, neither the 25th Division's medevac helicopter nor the Honolulu Fire Department's Air 1 helicopter could land.
Griffin said that firefighters and Army paramedics had to be lowered by wire into the crash site and the victims taken out by baskets.
David Duffy, UH botany professor and head of the Pacific Cooperative Studies unit, said the three biologists were surveying rare native plants yesterday and were being dropped off at different points.
"All are young, physically very fit people, well-trained and very safety conscious," he said.
"The Army is spending a lot of money on protecting the environment," he said.
The program is designed to protect endangered plant species, snails and bats, and to remove invasive species.
The Army avoids training in areas where environmental specialists have discovered and mapped rare species, he said.
In the five years Duffy has headed the program, there have been no helicopter accidents.
"You fly into difficult places, and sometimes things happen," he said. "Even with the best pilots, the best trained people, things happen."
Cherry Helicopters did not return phone calls from the Star-Bulletin.
A lower portion of the East Range was being used by 129 soldiers of the Army's A Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, for combat training at the time of the accident, said Army spokeswoman Capt. Stacy Bathrick.
