Aircraft Was Missing Since Tuesday, Found In Dense Forest
Area
The wreckage of a tour aircraft, missing since June 17, was
found Sunday morning by a search helicopter scanning remote areas
around the big island of Hawaii. All three aboard did not survive
the crash.
The Honolulu Advertiser reports wreckage of the missing Cessna
172M was spotted at 0553 local time at a 5,200-foot elevation in a
remote location within the Ka’u Forest Preserve. The site is
eight and a half miles northwest of Punalu’u Beach and eight
and a half miles west of Pahala. The site is not accessible from
the ground.
According to Fire Chief Darryl Olivera, county fire helicopters
were used to deliver an investigator from the National
Transportation Safety Board to the scene and to recover the bodies
of the pilot Katsuhiro Takahashi, 40, and the two passengers
aboard, Japanese tourists Nobuhiro and Masako Suzuki, 53 and
56.
The aircraft operated by Island Hoppers, departed the Kona
Airport at 1015 on June 17 for a clockwise two and a half hour tour
of the island. The aircraft last reported over a coastal lava flow
area between 1130 and 1145.
The area searchers were concentrating in was narrowed on Friday
after a report late Thursday from Nature Conservancy workers who
had been camping out of contact on the Mauna Loa volcano. They
reported hearing plane's engine suddenly stop about 1300 on the day
the aircraft was reported missing.
The area where the aircraft was found had been previously
searched by U.S. Coast Guard crews but poor visibility on the upper
slopes of Mauna Loa, with clouds closing in on the area almost
every morning, hampered the effort.
"Weather was probably a factor in not seeing it before as well
as the vegetation was pretty thick," with a 30-foot canopy towering
over a forest of large hapu'u ferns, Oliveira said.
Oliveira noted there was some broken vegetation where the plane
struck, but not a great deal, suggesting the plane may have come
down at a steep angle.
A staging area was set up on a high meadow about a mile from the
site to accommodate search and investigation crews. Oliveira said
the aircraft debris will not be removed until the NTSB has
completed its investigation.
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 13713 Make/Model:
C172 Description: 172, P172, R172, Skyhawk, Hawk XP,
Cutla
Date: 06/17/2008 Time: 0000
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury:
Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
City: KONA State: HI Country: US
DESCRIPTION
N13713, AN ISLAND HOPPERS AIR TAXI CESSNA 172M AIRCRAFT, IS
THE SUBJECT OF
AN ALERT NOTICE ISSUED AND SEARCH INITIATED 6/17, NOW
PRESUMED AN ACCIDENT
AS AIRCRAFT FAILED TO RETURN FOR A LOCAL SIGHTSEEING TOUR,
THE THREE
PERSONS ON BOARD ARE PRESUMED TO BE FATALLY INJURED, UPDATE:
WRECKAGE
LOCATED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN NEAR PAHALANEAR KONA,
HAWAII
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 3
# Crew:
1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0
Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass:
2 Fat: 2 Ser: 0
Min: 0 Unk:
#
Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min: 0 Unk:
WEATHER: ITO 2153Z 110013KT 10SM CLR 28/19 A3007
OTHER DATA
Activity: Business Phase: Unknown
Operation: OTHER
FAA FSDO: HONOLULU, HI
(WP13) Entry date:
06/20/2008 #