Peenie Wallie: Fatal Helicopter Crash in Kaua'i

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March 10, 2007

Fatal Helicopter Crash in Kaua'i

Looks like a sight-seeing chopper lost hydraulics and crashed while attempting an emergency landing at the Princeville Airport. Here's a discussion of the crash on Air Disaster. The crash killed three passengers and the pilot. This was the fifth fatal tour helicopter crash on Kaua'i in less than four years.

The pilot flew in Vietnam and he was an excellent pilot. Hawaii has a bunch of pilots that flew in Nam and they come back to the states and fly tourists over the islands.

Some of these helicopters are fairly old. The one in question had been in service since 1979. The NTSB is investigating, and they'll figure out why the hydraulics failed and probably work with the company to improve their maintenance procedures. But, statistically speaking, this is still basically a freak occurrence. In 2005, one in ten tourists to the islands - over 750,000 tourists flew on a helicopter tour over the islands. You really can't imagine how many helicopters are flying over there. They're jockeying for position over the volcano like flies at a picnic. So, it's sad that people have died in crashes, but it's really just a freak occurrence and it gets a lot more attention than people dying in more common and less spectacular ways. For instance, last year on Oahu, a guy died in a car crash and then the next day, people were standing around mourning at the accident site and someone hit them and killed three more. But this didn't make national news. And there won't be any investigation. And people won't stop driving cars.

Sad that this happened. May they rest in peace.