Wreckage Still Not Recovered From The Pacific Ocean

The NTSB has released a preliminary report from an accident involving a Cessna 172 which went down in the water off the coast of Hawaii ... but there is not much to report as the aircraft has not been located.

According to the report, on December 30, 2016, about 1849 Hawaiian standard time, a Cessna 172M, N174LL, departed Molokai Airport (MKK), Kaunakakai, Hawaii en route to the Honolulu Airport (HNL), Honolulu, Hawaii. Since that time, the private pilot and two passengers have not been located and the airplane is missing.

The airplane disappeared from Air Traffic Control radar after takeoff and is presumed to have crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

The airplane was registered to Yamataka Kumiko and operated by Lani Lea Sky Tours, LLC under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was filed for the cross-country flight that departed MKK at 1843. Preliminary Federal Aviation Administration radar data indicated that the airplane departed MKK and immediately started a climb to the west. The airplane entered a descending right turn seconds after it reached a maximum altitude of approximately 2,525 feet at 1848:38. The radar track ended at 1849:09, over open water approximately 7 nautical miles northwest of MKK.

A search rescue effort began immediately after the missing airplane report was issued, but was subsequently suspended on January 2, 2017. To date, the missing airplane has not been located and an emergency locator signal has not been reported.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov