JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM The Cessna that went missing off Molokai on Thursday belonged to Anderson Air, a flight training school.

Radar shows missing plane’s rapid descent

A single-engine Cessna aircraft was rapidly losing altitude just before it disappeared over the ocean off Molokai's Kalaupapa Peninsula on Thursday night with two men on board, according to recorded Navy radar data.

In the span of just over a half-minute, the aircraft went from a flying altitude of 5,100 feet to 3,700 feet 12 seconds later, to 1,400 feet another 12 seconds later, then to 200 feet after another 12 second interval, Nicole Charnon, National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said yesterday.

"I think it's pretty fair to say, once you do the calculation, that was a pretty rapid descent," she said.

The Cessna 177B is owned by Anderson Aviation Inc., a professional flight training school near Honolulu Airport. Owner Kelly Anderson said a commercial pilot and a commercial pilot student were aboard the plane. The company did not release the names of the pilot and student pending notification of their families.

According to the pilot's flight record, Anderson hired the pilot as an instructor in May 2004, Charnon said.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for the aircraft yesterday afternoon due to rough seas. Coast Guard officials were to determine whether they will resume the search this morning.

Even though searchers have not found any trace of the missing plane or occupants, Charnon said the NTSB is proceeding as it would for an accident. In addition to the radar data, Charnon collected the aircraft's maintenance record and pilot's flight record from Anderson.

The Cessna last appeared on radar at 8:54 p.m. Charnon said the plane's location was about five miles east of Kalaupapa Peninsula and about a mile off shore, she said.

The plane had been traveling east, turned south five to six miles past Kalaupapa Peninsula then started its rapid descent, Charnon said.

A witness, Jesse Broder Van Dyke, called 911 to report seeing a plane in distress and hearing a crash.

"All of a sudden out of the clouds, we saw some orange and red lights," Van Dyke told KHON-TV. "We heard a whirring engine noise as it wobbled and dropped. It disappeared behind the point and a couple seconds later, we heard what sounded like a crash into the ocean."

Allen Kenitzer, Federal Aviation Administration regional public affairs spokesman, said the pilot did not file a flight plan. But officials believe he was headed for Hana.

Charnon said the pilot received a weather briefing for Honolulu to Hana from the Honolulu flight service station. She said the pilot was training the student in a commercial pilot course that would eventually enable him to do flight instruction and charter flights.

She said it is not unusual for the pilot to take his student for a night flight because the course has a nighttime cross-country requirement. If they were on a cross-country night flight, they would have landed in Hana, she said.

The aircraft left Honolulu about 8 p.m., said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman. At 9:15 p.m. an airplane was reported down off Kalaupapa, he said.

Initial reports indicate the first call came from an air traffic control tower that noticed on radar that the aircraft was descending, Charnon said.

The air traffic control tower contacted a Continental Airlines flight that was able to make radio contact with the Cessna, but the plane kept descending and disappeared from the radar screen, she said.

A Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter and C-130 aircraft from Barbers Point started the search Thursday night using night-vision equipment. They were joined yesterday by the cutter Ahi, a 47-foot motor lifeboat from the Coast Guard Station Maui and crews from Maui County Fire Department.

Their search area spanned 10 miles east and west of Kalaupapa Peninsula and six miles out.