BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN The Federal Aviation Administration says the Hughes 500 helicopter that crashed Tuesday in the Koolau mountains can be considered "a total loss." A civilian helicopter ferried the wreckage yesterday over the foothills of Hauula.

Chopper crash survivors
‘lucky,’ investigators say

The FAA says the copter is so
damaged that it is a total loss

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

The Federal Aviation Administration says the Hughes 500 helicopter that crashed in the Koolaus on Tuesday suffered so much damage that it can be considered "a total loss."

Tweet Colemen, FAA spokeswoman, said investigators inspected the four-passenger helicopter yesterday, which was being leased by the Army to do assessments of endangered species in its training areas.

She said their assessment was the pilot, whom she did not identify, and his two passengers were "really, really lucky" to escape with minor injuries.

She would only describe the pilot as "fairly new to this type of operation and the islands."

The pilot had dropped off biologist Naomi Arcand, 24, near the Puu Kaaumakua summit where the 25th Division's East Range meets Oahu national forest refuge at the nearly 700-foot elevation of the Koolau Mountain Range.

The helicopter apparently got caught in some vines, Coleman said, and did what she described as a "dynamic roll" when it lost its power. The helicopter then fell down the mountainside and landed on its side 100 feet below the ridge on a flat precipice.

Arcand; Matthew Keir, 28; and a third passenger are biologists with the University of Hawaii Pacific Cooperative Studies unit.

Troy Griffin, Army spokesman, said they were on contract "to conduct routine, scheduled monitoring and seed collection of rare plants and snail populations, control invasive weeds/plants and conduct ungulate (goats, pigs) control in the Koolau mountains."

Coleman said the FAA plans to visit the crash site again today and conduct further interviews with the pilot.

She said the pilot told investigators that after he got out of the downed helicopter, he climbed back up the ridge to where he had dropped off the woman.

Coleman said Cherry Helicopters, owned by Greg Mattson, has had "a good safety record."

The head of UH Pacific Cooperative Studies did not recall any other helicopter accidents during the five years he has headed the program.

The three biologists were supposed to have been dropped off at different points to do a survey of rare native plants.