Winds stall
wreckage retrieval

Investigators will look at pieces
recovered from the copter crash

The Kauai Fire Department will make another attempt today to retrieve pieces of the wreckage of a Bali Hai Helicopter Tours Jet Ranger that collided into a Kauai cliffside Sept. 24, killing the pilot and two couples on board.

Yesterday, heavy winds prevented the fire department's helicopter from flying to the crash site located on the near-vertical cliff face of a mountain at the 3,000-foot elevation level.

"The winds are pretty kicking here," said Nicole Charnon, National Transportation Safety Board investigator, yesterday. "I don't want another accident."

Today NTSB investigators will examine the wreckage already recovered. They include the engine, the tail boom, tail rotor drive system, the main rotor transmission, one of two main rotor blades and some parts and components of the cockpit.

The crash site is eight miles north of Port Allen, where the helicopter was based. The helicopter had taken off the afternoon of Sept. 24 for an hour-long circle-island tour that included the Napali Coast, Hanalei and near Mount Waialeale.

Still missing are the tail rotor, the second main rotor blade, seat cushions, as well as the collective, the cyclic or the stick, used to control the helicopter.

Fire damage was evident -- a couple of components having been burned away, Charnon said.

Investigators spent yesterday looking through pilot's, maintenance and operational records gathered over the past week, Charnon said.

Investigators will also be conducting more interviews with pilots of the area, and other tour operators to educate themselves with Hawaii's environment, Charnon said.

The pilot, Shankar Tummala, a former Indian military pilot, had been on Kauai only a short time, Charnon said. He had logged 126 hours flying time on Jet Rangers, all on Kauai, with a total of 4,000 hours of rotary wing experience.

Also killed were Willy Braun, 59, and Heike Braun, 38, of Germany, and Tamara Zytkowski, 30, of Avon, Ohio, and her boyfriend, Thomas Huemmer, also of Avon, whose body was recovered Friday.

Rescue crews took 20 hours to locate the Bali Hai helicopter after the crash since it was not equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, which is not a requirement on helicopters.