Intense Search Pressed for Hawaii Tour Plane Lost With 11 Aboard
Rescue crews searched by air, sea and land Monday for a sightseeing plane that vanished between the islands of Hawaii and Maui with 11 people aboard.
“No debris, no people, no nothin’,” Coast Guard spokesman Scott Hartvigsen said of the overnight search for the Scenic Air Tours Hawaii plane, which disappeared Sunday.
Searchers used a Coast Guard cutter and helicopter and seven Civil Air Patrol planes to scan 1,279 square miles of ocean, Hartvigsen said. Police on both the islands also checked tourist areas, he said.
Air strips also were checked in case the pilot had landed without informing the Federal Aviation Administration, said FAA spokesman George Harvey.
The twin-engine Beechcraft, carrying the pilot and 10 passengers, had left Hilo Airport for Kahului Airport and headed up the coast of Hawaii under partly sunny skies. It disappeared without any indication of trouble, officials said.
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