Newlyweds among dead in Hawaii helicopter crash

HONOLULU?? Federal officials are investigating the fiery crash of a tourist helicopter that slammed into a mountain ridge on Hawaii's Molokai island on Thursday, killing the pilot and the four tourists aboard.

The aircraft was flying to see West Maui and Molokai when it went down near an elementary school, authorities said. Firefighters recovered four bodies and the fifth was located under the wreckage.

Blue Hawaiian Helicopters owner David Chevalier said the passengers were two men and two women taking a 45-minute tour that departed from Kahului, on Maui. He declined to release the pilot's name.

"We're extremely grieved for our pilot as well as the passengers," Chevalier said. "Something like this can't be more devastating to us."

Rod Antone, a Maui official, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the passengers were from Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada.

Maui county officials said at least two of the passengers were newlyweds, the paper reported.

The Maui News said officials identified the pilot as Nathan Cline, 30, of Kihei.

The EC-130 chopper that crashed was less than a year old and was being leased from Nevada Helicopter Leasing LLC, Chevalier said.

Deadly crashes
Molokai is a mostly rural island of about 7,000 people between Maui and Oahu, where world leaders have gathered this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Honolulu.

Helicopter tour companies advertise trips to Molokai to see the island's sea cliffs and Hawaii's tallest waterfall. The remote Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai is where Hawaii exiled leprosy patients between 1866 and 1969.

A Blue Hawaiian helicopter was involved in a July 2000 crash that killed seven people on Maui. A National Transportation Safety Board report said that the pilot was responsible, failing to maintain enough altitude over the terrain amid low-lying clouds.

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Maui mayor Alan Arakawa knew the pilot on a personal level, according to a report on news website Hawaii News Now.

"He's taken us around when we had the tsunami problems," the mayor said. "We went around and we actually got to see all of the details, taking us real close. (He was) very experienced. We're just really sad that this has happened."

He added: "We truly want to express our sorrow to all of those whose families are involved," Arakawa told the website. Blue Hawaiian, this is only the second accident they've had in the history of the company, so generally a very, very safe company."

Blue Hawaiian conducts 160,000 tours each year on all of the Hawaiian islands, Chevalier said.

Hawaii has seen several other helicopter crashes in the last decade.

In March 2007, four people died when a Heli-USA Airways helicopter crashed at Princeville Airport on Kauai.

Three passengers drowned in 2005 after a helicopter crashed into the ocean off the coast of Kauai. In 2004, five people were killed when a helicopter crashed into a mountain on Kauai.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45248790/ns/travel-news/

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