Kauai Helicopter Crash: The Pilot Tried To Reach Shore. One Survivor Was Trapped For Over An Hour.

Three people died Thursday when a tour helicopter crashed off Kalalau Beach on Kauai’s Na Pali Coast. Friday’s press conference added the first clear sequence of the final hour: police said the pilot apparently tried to bring the aircraft closer to shore before impact, and fire officials said one survivor remained trapped in the wreckage in the ocean for more than an hour as rain, wind, and surf worsened around rescuers.

The aircraft, a 1979 McDonnell Douglas MD-500, departed Lihue Airport at about 3:13 p.m. Thursday, and the crash was reported at 3:45 p.m., putting it in the air for about 32 minutes. The Coast Guard reported it had crash-landed on a sandbar about 100 yards offshore of Kalalau Beach with five people aboard.

Kauai officials identified two of the dead as Margaret Rimmler, 65, and Patrick Haskell, 59, both from Massachusetts. A third victim, a 40-year-old woman, was still being withheld pending family notification. Two survivors were taken to Wilcox Medical Center and remained under medical care. All three victims identified or pending identification were Kauai visitors. Officials have not released the pilot’s name or status.

What preliminary reports show.

Kauai Police Chief Rudy Tai said, “preliminary reports indicate the pilot attempted to bring the helicopter closer to the shore during the crash.” The investigation has not determined a cause, and investigators had not yet arrived on Kauai when that detail was shared.

The survivor who was trapped for over an hour.

Kauai Fire Chief Michael Gibson said crews arrived to find “multiple patients across the beach and the shoreline.” At Friday’s press conference, a visibly shaken Gibson said “bystanders on the beach, along with surviving passengers, began CPR and provided immediate care to the victims” before first responders reached the scene, though the exact sequence of who was where remains part of the ongoing investigation.

The fifth person was trapped in the helicopter, and it took “well over an hour” to get that person out because the first priority was the victims already on the beach. Gibson said conditions worsened during that time. The weather was off and on at first, with rain, wind, and surf all moving around, but by the time crews extricated the trapped person, the conditions had turned rough, with heavier rain, stronger wind, and surf that had built up further.

Dispatch received the 911 text at about 3:45 p.m., and the response that followed was slowed by the same realities that make Kalalau so difficult in the first place. Fire officials said radio communication is weak north of Kee Beach, which is why exact arrival times are unclear.

Ocean safety crews were estimated on scene sometime between 4:10 and 4:21 p.m., and Air 1 was on the ground at 4:21 p.m. Up to 10 campers were on the beach; another helicopter operator reported CPR was already underway there; and both Airborne Aviation and Blue Hawaiian landed helicopters on the beach to provide help.

What Airborne Aviation said Friday.

Airborne director of operations Doug Froning said the company has “suspended all operations for an indefinite period of time until we’re certain we can continue safely.” The one helicopter seen flying on Friday morning was not a tour. It was a separate conservation agency extraction, and after that, the company’s flying was tied to the accident response, investigation, and recovery. Froning said the owners were already on a plane back to Kauai when the press conference was held.

Airborne, with its doors-off tours, was the company that Beat of Hawaii identified in “The Kauai Helicopter Company Visitors Trusted Most Just Crashed On Na Pali Coast” as the operator visitors specifically chose for its rescue background and safety reputation. It is now grounded indefinitely while federal investigators begin their work. When we visited the Airborne Aviation website today, we saw that we could start booking again on April 4.

What the investigation starts with.

NTSB and FAA investigators were expected Friday night or Saturday morning, and wreckage recovery was still underway when county officials spoke. Mayor Derek Kawakami said questions about tourism flight paths are not the county’s to answer. He said that it is “out of our wheelhouse” and an FAA decision.

The Coast Guard press release page for the crash featured a banner stating that the site would not be actively managed due to a lapse in federal funding. The agency responding to and supporting the investigation is operating under that same lapse.

We will continue updating this post as new details emerge, and we extend our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives while wishing the survivors a full recovery.

Lead Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard / Station Kauai.