the crash happened just a minute after the takeoff. Wouldn’t the rader show the plane disappearing? why did eric Weiss of NTSB state that the plane will not be recovered if it crashed so close to shore? How deep was the water in that area?
Posted on | December 15, 2013 | 13 Comments
Hawaii Survivor: Plane Lost Power, Then Glided
| By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press | Dec 13, 2013, 2:35 PM |
When the lone engine of a small commercial plane failed, the nine people on board stayed calm as the aircraft glided toward the ocean and made a remarkably smooth belly landing, a survivor recounted Friday.
C. Phillip Hollstein Jr., a 70-year-old Kailua man, swam a half-mile in 6-foot waves to a rugged shoreline after the crash, which killed state health Director Loretta Fuddy. The others on board suffered only minor injuries.
Hollstein said the pilot, Clyde Kawasaki, expertly maneuvered the plane after the engine failed, avoiding what could have been a catastrophic impact on the water.
“He did everything right,” Hollstein said. “He set it up for the best crash-landing you could do.”
The engine on Makani Kai Air’s 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop cut out less than a minute after takeoff from the island of Molokai on Wednesday afternoon, just as the plane was making a turn toward its destination of Honolulu, Hollstein said.
There was a “muffled bang,” he said, and “then we were a glider.”
“Everyone was real quiet. We hit (the water), and it was all about getting the belts off,” Hollstein said. People put on life jackets and remained in the plane until it started sinking, he said.
“There wasn’t panic or anything. It was very orderly. It wasn’t like any of the movies or the TV shows,” Hollstein said.
When Hollstein saw that everyone was out of the plane, bobbing in the water and seemingly without any major injuries, he swam for shore, guessing it took 90 minutes.
Fuddy, who gained attention after deciding to publicly release President Barack Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate in 2011 to rebut claims he was not born in the United States, was clinging to the hand of her deputy, Keith Yamamoto.
Yamamoto tried to help the 65-year-old relax, according to the Rev. Patrick Killilea, who consoled Yamamoto after the crash.
“He recounted how he said he helped Loretta into her life jacket and he held her hand for some time,” the priest said. “They were all floating together, and she let go and there was no response from her.”
Hollstein was surprised to learn Fuddy died.
“She was doing fine out of the airplane,” he said. “Her assistant was really watching her. He was taking care of her.”
Kawasaki, a 60-year-old veteran pilot, and the other passengers were pulled from the water by rescuers. Kawasaki was flown to Honolulu, and when his son, Robert Kawasaki, met him at the airport, he still was wearing his wet pants.
The elder Kawasaki banged his head on the plane’s control panel during the crash, and his son took him to a hospital for treatment.
“He’s very broken up about (Fuddy’s death),” the son said.
Fuddy and Yamamoto were on the flight after an annual visit to Kalaupapa, where the state exiled leprosy patients until 1969. The settlement is still run by the health department, though only a few former leprosy patients live there.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash and probably won’t have the benefit of examining the plane. The location of the wreckage, combined with wind and wave conditions, likely means it won’t be recovered, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said.
Makani Kai Air owner Richard Schuman said he has no idea why the engine failed. The plane had no previous problems, he said.
John Frank, executive director of the Cessna Pilots Association, said the Grand Caravan has a reliable engine.
“It’s very unusual to have an inflight failure of this engine — almost unheard of, actually, unless there’s some contributing factor like fuel not being available to the engine or something,” Frank said.
Robert Kawasaki said his father has had a lifelong passion for flying and didn’t panic when the engine went out.
“To land on its belly with all the waves, that’s pretty impressive,” he said. “He’s a glider pilot, too. So he knows what to do when a plane is stuck in a glide.”
———
Associated Press writers Oskar Garcia and Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.
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13 Responses to “the crash happened just a minute after the takeoff. Wouldn’t the rader show the plane disappearing? why did eric Weiss of NTSB state that the plane will not be recovered if it crashed so close to shore? How deep was the water in that area?”
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December 15th, 2013 @ 10:31 pm
Just after take off must mean it was full of fuel.
is that something they just leave in the water if recovery is possible?
December 16th, 2013 @ 2:16 am
I believe under maritime salvage laws anybody may recover a wreck that is left for so long a time. It would be interesting to see what caused the plane to stop running.
December 16th, 2013 @ 9:54 am
You all are missing the bigger flag. That particular engine is not known to stall; yet it did. The pilot, of all the training in the industry ; he was a glider pilot. How fortunate a glider pilot was at the helm when a engine that never fails, does.
December 16th, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
Also…I’m wondering what difference it makes if the plane is so close to shore?
Wouldn’t that make it simply easier to recover?
The whole episode is NOT normal!
That means that this was a well-planned attack upon Fuddy?…or…this is just a story, to keep everyone from focusing upon our Crisis?
December 16th, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
Also…I’m wondering what difference it makes if the plane is so close to shore?
Wouldn’t that make it simply easier to recover?
The whole episode is NOT normal!
That means that this was a well-planned attack upon Fuddy?…or…this is just a story, to keep everyone from focusing upon our Crisis?
December 16th, 2013 @ 7:58 pm
The whole scenario is a repeat of the 2002
Wellstone air crash. MURDER MOST FOUL, IMO.
December 17th, 2013 @ 2:04 am
There was a “muffled bang,” he said, and “then we were a glider.”
Sounds like a compressor stall. I’ve had one
with a turbine engine at 8,000 feet.
What do you do when a turboprop’s engine stalls on you mid-air? site below
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101011111509AA79Vui
Pictures of the type plane…
https://www.google.com/search?q=2002+cessna+grand+caravan+turboprops&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=aCCwUouvGcv9oATdmYCgAg&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1093&bih=538
December 17th, 2013 @ 2:19 am
Amazing, Loretta Fuddy’s Picture is in with the
planes in post #6…There are 2 at little over
1/3rd of the way down.
December 17th, 2013 @ 5:46 am
Out of ALL the Stories/Articles I have read…NOT ONE mentions the Pilot making a Disstress Call… No May-Day Call.
That in itself is Strange. One picture I seen that I can not find now, Shows a Coast Guard Helicopter and 2 Boats about 100-150 Yards off shore Picking Up the Survivors. I will keep looking for this picture, because it made NO SENSE that it would take one to one and a half Hours to swim to shore. I will post the pic. once I find it again.
December 17th, 2013 @ 8:54 am
I do not have this picture
December 17th, 2013 @ 8:56 am
could it be a drone hit directed at the propeller? It will create a boom that they heard
December 17th, 2013 @ 2:21 pm
Orly, a drone hit would or may be a big bird,
but it would impact the windshield & not making
a noise as describe…a turkey in flight has
killed a helicopter pilot flying a 90kts as it
went thru the windshield. If the plane is recovered and the props are damaged or bent, then it is possible, but the pilot should have
sent a radio MayDay in his transmission about the strike.
One site I visited stated, when a sharp directional change is made it can cause the
airflow into the turbine to backup causing a
compressor surge or stall…shutting down the
turbine engine. These sounds would be more internal than an external strike. Having been
hit by enemy fire on the airframe many times,
it is not something like a muffled bang sound inside the aircraft cabin.
Roy
Instructor Pilot
December 17th, 2013 @ 7:18 pm
A very recent report by Schuman on ORYR states
that a May-Day was sent, and a local Molokai
pilot responded. All unverified, IMO. Could
be a fraud or a lie. Wait and see. Check it
out, IMO.