Bodies From Copter Crash Retrieved

Rescue crews in Wailuku completed the grim and dangerous task of retrieving the bodies of seven people killed when a tour helicopter crashed on a steep mountain hillside. A 10-man crew rappelled down from the helicopter to a ridge and then set new lines to rappel to the site at the 2,700-foot level. “There’s no place a helicopter can land, so the men are rappelling down,” said Lt. John Morioka, a spokesman for the Maui Police Department. The crash Friday of the Blue Hawaiian Helicopters twin-engine AS355 occurred in a remote area of Iao Valley on Maui. Photos of the scene show the tail section intact, but the rest of the helicopter disintegrated into pieces.