Seven People Were On Board The Helicopter When It Went Down

The Kaua'i Police Department, Kaua'i Fire Department and the Department of Land and Natural Resources in Hawaii continued recovery efforts Saturday of the helicopter accident that occurred last Thursday in Koke'e. Due to the additional recovery efforts, the nature of the crash and impact damage, Kaua'i police can confirm that there are no survivors.

According to preliminary reports from a flight manifest, Kaua'i police believe the pilot to be 69-year-old Paul Matero of Wailua and two of the passengers to be 47-year-old Amy Gannon and 13-year-old Jocelyn Gannon of Madison, Wisconsin. The four other passengers are believed to be a family from Switzerland—a 50-year-old female, 49-year-old male, 13-year-old female and a 10-year old female. Their names have not yet been released. Autopsies to positively confirm all identities are still pending.

“We offer our continued condolences and prayers to the families and friends of the victims,” said KPD Assistant Chief Bryson Ponce. “As we continue to search for and recover evidence pertinent to this tragic helicopter crash, we hope to bring some sense of closure to the loved ones of the victims.”

Recovery efforts were suspended Saturday afternoon. The scene has been turned over for further investigation to the National Transportation Safety Board.

In a statement Congressman Ed Case (D-HI) said that such tours are "not safe, and innocent lives are paying the price."

“We know this not only because of repeated fatal accidents and other incidents over the years, but because the National Transportation Safety Board, responsible for analyzing all such accidents, has placed safety improvements for such operations on its highest priority list," Case said. We further know that the Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for regulating our nation’s airspace, has not taken the NTSB’s concerns seriously,” Case said.

“Finally, we know that the tour helicopter and small aircraft industry itself is completely incapable of self-regulation. In our Hawai’i alone, the industry, while stridently arguing that it is safe and sensitive to neighborhoods, has in fact ignored any sensible safety improvements, instead dramatically increasing in recent years its volume of flights, at all times of day and night, in seemingly all weather, over more residential neighborhoods and to more risky and remote locations, at lower altitudes, while completely failing to address ground safety and community disruption concerns,” he wrote.

(Image provided with Kaua'i Police news release)

FMI: www.kauai.gov