Kauai crew fails to
retrieve air wreckage

LIHUE » Winds up to 70 mph and a nearly vertical cliff face forced a Kauai Fire Department rescue crew to abandon its attempts yesterday to recover the bodies of five people believed killed in a tour helicopter crash.

Kauai fire officials have requested a UH-60 Black Hawk from the U.S. Army on Oahu and were hoping one would become available today.

Isle tour helicopter crashes since 1994 2003 » Five people died when their Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter slammed into Mount Waialeale on Kauai. » Four people, including a family of three, were killed in a crash at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. 2001 » A Bell 206 helicopter's engine failed while on a tour of the Big Island, crashing into a Keaau field. Two passengers sustained minor burns, while the other passengers and pilot were uninjured. 2000 » A Blue Hawaiian helicopter crashed onto a steep cliff above Iao Valley on Maui, killing the pilot, two teenage girls, a father and his three children. 1998 » An Ohana Helicopter tour aircraft crashed into Mount Waialeale on Kauai, killing the craft's pilot and his five passengers. 1997 » Two people died when a Hughes 369D crashed in Puako on the Big Island. » A Bell 206B crashed in Hilo, killing one. 1994 » An Aerospatiale AS350D helicopter crashed off the Na Pali Coast on Kauai. Three of the seven passengers were killed. On the same day, seven people were injured when another AS350D crashed while touring the Kalaupapa peninsula.

"This is the first time in 17 years when I've never been able to get to the scene of an incident," said Colin Wilson, who heads the department's elite rescue team.

"We were blowing all over the place, back and forth. We couldn't even stabilize the helicopter. We couldn't get down to the top of the ridge," Wilson said. "The wind comes right up the mountain."

The Bell Jet Ranger operated by Bali Hai Helicopter Tours from Port Allen Airport was demolished in the crash Friday evening. The company has not returned any phone calls or issued any statements since the crash.

Officials believe none of the five people on board the chopper survived the crash. They include the pilot, said by the U.S. Coast Guard to be an Indian air force veteran, a German couple and a man and woman from the mainland. The mainland woman's parents were on Kauai and had flown a tour earlier Friday on the same helicopter that later crashed.

The names of the victims have not been released, but, The Morning Journal of Lorain, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, identified one of the victims in today's edition as Thomas J. Huemmer, 36, of Avon, Ohio. The newspaper said that Huemmer's father, Frank, had confirmed that his son and his son's 30 year-old girlfriend of Westlake, Ohio, were on the chopper.

The paper said that Frank Huemmer had received a call from the girlfriend's father that the chopper was missing.

Even if the Fire Department crew had been able to land on the narrow ridge, the rescue workers would have to rappel about 300 feet on a nearly vertical cliff face to the wreck site. The entire area is densely covered with ferns more than 6 feet high.

Rescue workers also considered hiking into the wreck site from the nearest possible landing site, three-quarters of a mile away.

"Hiking in that terrain would take two days," Wilson said.

"We simply can't gain access to the area. I can't figure out how to do it. We may have better luck with a larger helicopter," Wilson said.

After the Fire Department recovers the bodies of the victims, Bali Hai Helicopters still will be responsible for bringing out the wreckage. After past crashes, the pieces of the helicopters have been laid out on a hangar floor at Lihue Airport to help investigators determine the cause of the crash.

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were on their way to Kauai yesterday.

The downed helicopter was not discovered until 2 p.m. Saturday, about 20 hours after it was reported overdue. It did not have an emergency locator transmitter, a radio beacon that is activated in any crash. Federal investigators are expected to look into why the company was granted a waiver from the transmitter regulation by the FAA.

The wreckage was spotted purely by accident by a Coast Guard helicopter crew when the thick, swirling clouds chanced to part for just an instant Saturday afternoon as they were flying above the crash site.

A rescue specialist said it appeared the Bali Hai helicopter had flown straight into the mountain and then caught fire. He did not spot any victims, and he said the only recognizable part of the helicopter that remained was a single rotor blade.

The skies cleared yesterday, but the small, agile Hughes 500 used by the Fire Department simply was not stable or powerful enough to handle the wind so a crew could be placed on the ground.

Adding to the frustration, rescue workers who remained at the command post near Kukui Grove shopping mall watched through field glasses as the helicopter made repeated abortive attempts at a landing. The wreck site could be seen from the command post yesterday. On Saturday it was covered by clouds.