FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Two sky divers plunged to their deaths in a tandem jump yesterday, landing in a residence at Mokuleia. Here, an FAA investigator prepared to enter the residence through the front gates.
Sky diving instructor, Police and federal aviation investigators are looking for the reasons that parachutes for a Nebraska visitor and her Hawaii instructor failed to open, leading the two tandem sky divers into a fatal plunge near Dillingham Airfield yesterday.
visitor die in plunge
They land in a yard in Mokuleia
after their parachutes fail to openBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com
One victim was Margaret Jean Thomas, an 18-year-old Nebraska woman visiting her brother, who is in the Army and based in Honolulu, for the holidays, said police Lt. Gary Lahens. The sky diving outing was a holiday gift from her family, a police report said.
The other victim was a 44-year-old sky diving instructor from Mokuleia. He worked for Drop Zone, a company operated by Air Tugie Productions Ltd. on Farrington Highway at Dillingham Airfield. Owner Ken Anderson declined to comment on the accident. The instructor's name was not released pending notification of next of kin.
Lahens said the two were the last of five clients and their instructors to jump out of a Cessna 402 plane at an altitude of 9,000 feet before 2:26 p.m.
Lahens said the main parachute and backup chute failed to deploy, and the sky divers dropped to the ground.
Mandy Shiraki, Emergency Medical Services district chief, said weather conditions were excellent and not a factor in the accident.
The two fell to their deaths and landed in Wagner and Kelly Carvalho's backyard at 68-299 Mahinaai St. soon after 2:30 p.m., police said.
Wagner Carvalho said his father-in-law, Fred Chuckovich, was replacing their metal gate when he heard a strange flapping noise, then a loud thud about 50 feet behind him.
"He didn't hear any yelling," Carvalho said. Chuckovich declined to comment.
Carvalho said his 7-year-old son, Gunnar, was with Chuckovich and went inside their home just before the accident.
"I was scared that he would see it, but he didn't see it, thank God," said Carvalho, who was at work in Haleiwa when relatives called him about the accident.
Coincidentally, Carvalho said he received a Skydive Hawaii gift certificate from his wife and had considered going tandem sky diving yesterday. "I was thinking about doing it," Carvalho said. "It was a beautiful day. A lot of people were jumping."
Then he received the call about the accident and returned home. Because of Hawaii's landscape and climate, "we're a very popular spot for parachute sky diving," said Tweet Coleman, Pacific representative for the Federal Aviation Administration. Coleman said police informed her about the accident, which the FAA is investigating.
"My heart goes out to the family, especially during this time of the year," said Coleman, who has sky-dived tandem and solo 62 times in Hawaii and California.
"It's very unfortunate. It's something that you can't predict."
Nelson Daranciang contributed to this report.
