Three people died and two survived when a tour helicopter went into the ocean off Kalalau Beach on Kauaʻi’s Nāpali Coast on Thursday, March 26, officials confirmed. The aircraft belonged to Airborne Aviation and was carrying one pilot and four passengers, the Kauaʻi Fire Department said.
The victims were Margaret Rimmler, 65, and Patrick Haskell, 59, both visiting from Massachusetts, and Oksana Pihol, a 40-year-old Ukrainian national. Pihol was named on the Monday after the crash. The two survivors, one of them probably the pilot, were being treated at Wilcox Medical Center and have not been identified.
The flight
Flight records show the helicopter left Līhuʻe Airport at 3:13 p.m. It was on its sixth tour of the day. Radar tracked it across the lower half of the island toward Kekaha, and the data ends at 3:34 p.m. Just before that, the aircraft’s speed fell from 120 mph to 60 mph, and it sank from around 3,500 feet to 1,500 feet within a couple of minutes.
Kauaʻi Police Chief Rudy Tai said witnesses described the pilot trying to bring the helicopter closer to the beach once it was clear a crash was coming. The U.S. Coast Guard said the water landing, so far from any road, made rescue and recovery harder.
An aviation weather advisory known as AIRMET Tango covered all the islands that day, warning of low-level turbulence. The National Weather Service also expected spells of reduced visibility from haze, drizzle or mist. The coast’s tall cliffs and sharp ridges are known to churn the air and change the weather quickly.
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of the Hughes/MD 500. “They will begin gathering information surrounding the flight and plan to examine the helicopter once it is recovered from the water,” the agency said in a statement. Weather will be a focus. Two years ago NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration about a tendency among Hawaiʻi tour operators and pilots to fly in poor conditions. Local operators reject the idea that they push the limits for business reasons.
Because two people lived, investigators have something they rarely get in Hawaiʻi. In almost every other recent NTSB case there, everyone aboard died. The survivors’ accounts and those of witnesses on the beach could fill in the minutes before the descent.
The helicopter was built in 1979 and carried the tail number N715KV. Records show it has operated under at least eight other registrations, and it once flew in Canada, where it was heavily modified with flotation tanks. Airborne Aviation is a newer name in the Kauaʻi tour market, though it has done utility, conservation, fire and search-and-rescue work since at least 2009. FAA and NTSB records suggest this is its first safety incident. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A long record
Civil Beat, citing NTSB data, reported that Hawaiʻi has the worst helicopter sightseeing safety record in the country. Fifty-one people have died in helicopter crashes there since 2000. This was the 13th fatal helicopter crash in the state in 25 years, and nine have been on Kauaʻi, including the three most recent.
The last one came on July 11, 2024, also along the Nāpali Coast. Three people died, and only one body was recovered. NTSB investigators traced it to a known problem with the Robinson R44, in which the main rotor can wobble violently in extreme wind and hit the airframe. In December 2019, seven people, three of them children, died when a helicopter went down in turbulent weather near the same coast.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz have pushed for tougher regulation. Industry groups such as Vertical Aviation International have defended the local record. Case said Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry “can and should advise visitors that tour helicopters and small operations are hazardous and are completely objected to by local residents.”
Kauaʻi County Mayor Derek Kawakami thanked the Coast Guard and local police, fire and safety agencies for their coordinated response. At a press conference he also pointed to the tours’ place in the island’s economy. “As long as our island is beautiful and mankind is born with curiosity,” he said, “people are going to want to experience this.”
Attorney Andrew Robb, whose Kansas City firm represents crash victims, said he has “seen too much” in his industry to recommend such a flight to anyone he cares about.
Sources
- 3 killed in tour company helicopter crash on Kauaʻi's Nāpali Coast
- What Do We Know About Kaua'i Helicopter Crash?
Sources
- 3 killed in tour company helicopter crash on Kauaʻi's Nāpali Coast
- Kaua'i Helicopter Crash: Here's What We Know… – Honolulu Civil Beat
