Kauai tour helicopter second to crash within days
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Monday, March 12, 2007
HA'ENA, Kaua'i — The pilot of an Inter-Island Airways tour helicopter that crashed yesterday afternoon has been treated and released from Wilcox Memorial Hospital but his three surviving passengers remain in critical condition, the Kaua'i Fire Department said this morning.
A man and woman who were aboard the Hughes 500 helicopter that crashed in Ha'ena on Kaua'i's North Shore shortly after 1 p.m. yesterday were flown to The Queen's Medical Center on O'ahu Sunday evening. Another woman who survived the crash remains at Wilcox Hospital and is scheduled for surgery today, the fire department said.
One of the passengers died in the crash.
Pilot Donald Torres, 30, was about mid-way through his scheduled 50 to 55-minute tour with four passengers on board when he heard a "loud bang" before crashing on Kaua'i's North Shore yesterday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
It appears that the pilot tried to land the helicopter in the only vacant space for miles — a field at the YMCA's Camp Naue in Ha'ena. The area around the crash site site is surrounded by residential homes and foliage — from the beach to Kuhio Highway.
It was the second fatal crash of a Kaua'i tour helicopter in a 70-hour period.
Four people, including the pilot, died Thursday afternoon when a Heli USA A-Star helicopter crashed at about 3 p.m. on its way back to Princeville Airport after the pilot reported problems with his hydraulic system.
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