5 Killed as Hawaii Tour Copter Crashes

A tour helicopter crashed Wednesday, killing five people, including a woman who survived for several hours as rescue workers attempted to get her off a cloud-covered mountainside on Kauai, fire officials said.

The woman’s male companion, along with another couple and the pilot of the Bell 206B helicopter, died in the crash, said fire Battalion Chief Mitchell Ikeda. The wreckage of the helicopter was spotted around noon about 4,300 feet up Mount Waialeale, said Lt. Miles Tanabe, an acting assistant chief with the Kauai Police Department.

Rescue personnel at the scene Wednesday afternoon tried to have the survivor airlifted from the steep crash site, but clouds covered the mountain and prevented rescuers from evacuating her, officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the cause of the crash could not be immediately determined, and identities of the victims were not immediately released.

The FAA said the helicopter was destroyed.

The aircraft, owned by Jack Harter Helicopters, had been three hours overdue to return from an hourlong tour that left Lihue at 8:03 a.m., said Donn Walker, a spokesman for the FAA in Los Angeles.

The helicopter was built in 1975, Walker said. Jack Harter Helicopters’ ad in the Yellow Pages notes that it has a “perfect safety record.” The company originated helicopter tours on Kauai in 1962.

The crash Wednesday was the second fatal helicopter crash in Hawaii in six weeks. On June 15, a sightseeing helicopter crashed on the Big Island near the Kilauea Volcano, killing four people.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board both sent investigators to Kauai.

The FAA said it would set up an emergency wreckage area at the airport commuter air terminal to bring the Kauai helicopter wreckage in.