Plane Crash Debris Retrieved

 

Wreckage was to heavy for a helicopter to lift, but today a bigger chopper recovered what was left of the plane.

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The wreckage of a single-engine Piper Cherokee airplane that crashed in the Koolau Mountains last Sunday was removed from the mountainside yesterday and brought to a private hangar at Honolulu Airport.

The crash killed two people on board: veterinarian Nicholas Palumbo, 81, and his son Timothy, 20, who were returning from Lanai, where the elder Palumbo ran a veterinary clinic and made weekend visits.

A service for the Palumbos was held yesterday at Star of the Sea Church.

Mililani resident Joel Ramos was hiking the Wiliwilinui Trail at about 10 a.m. yesterday when he saw a helicopter pick up the wreckage a couple ridges away.

  Family Gathers for Palumbo Memorial

 

At Star of the Sea Church, there were tears and fond memories of Nick and Timmy Palumbo.

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The chopper dropped a line and within a minute lifted up the debris and carried it to a tractor-trailer waiting near the Wiliwilinui trailhead.

“;When they were coming down the mountain, some debris was falling off,”; Ramos said.

National Transportation and Safety Board investigator Zoe Keliher said she and another investigator will “;perform a tear-down inspection of the engine and airframe in an effort to assess if there were any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions, failures or anomalies.”;

On Wednesday, an NTSB investigator from Washington, D.C., will investigate the Traffic Control Facility's role with the airplane at Honolulu Airport.