PORT ALLEN — Where helicopter rescue flying is concerned, there is no room for pilot emotion. But it was difficult for Luca Rostagno to keep his feelings in check when he learned there was one survivor of a crash of
PORT ALLEN — Where helicopter rescue flying is concerned, there is no room for pilot emotion.
But it was difficult for Luca Rostagno to keep his feelings in check when he learned there was one survivor of a crash of a Jack Harter Helicopters’ craft on a precipice in Wai‘ale‘ale Crater last week.
Adding to the dramatic rescue scenario was the fact that Rostagno, 37, chief pilot of Inter-Island Helicopters, was a friend of Harter chief pilot Mark Lundgren, 44, who died in the crash.
After Kaua‘i Fire Department rescue specialist Tim Stokesbary was finally able to be dropped to the crash site last Wednesday, as weather conditions in the crater deteriorated rapidly, everyone on board was surprised when Stokesbary radioed information about a sole survivor, Rostagno said.
“That put a lot of pressure on us, we were even trying the impossible to get back up there to the survivor,” but were continually repelled and frustrated by heavy cloud cover and unpredictable winds, Rostagno said.
“We were fighting the forces of nature. So it was not easy at all. We tried several times to get back in there, and that was definitely the most dangerous and difficult” flying of any of his 7,000 hours in the air, he recalled.
A break allowed a second KFD rescuer to be lowered to the crash scene, but then weather conditions again changed so rapidly that all Rostagno could do was drop the man and quickly ascend to safety, he said.
“We only had time to drop him, then the weather dropped in on us so that it was hard to get out of the area safely,” Rostagno said. “From then on, we were once again at the mercy of the weather.”
“Our main concern was the survivor,” he said. “We definitely tried everything that was possible,” including approaching the site from all possible angles.
The remaining KFD rescue specialist on board was used mostly for monitoring the changing, wicked weather conditions. “The clouds are coming. We gotta get out of here,” the weather-spotter cried out on more than one occasion, Rostagno said.
The clouds were “coming from nowhere,” and on at least two occasions Rostagno found his Hughes 500 helicopter engulfed in clouds, with just 15 feet of visibility allowing him a single reference point of a sheer cliff inside the crater.
“It was not fun at all.”
Rostagno acknowledges he put himself, the KFD crew and his helicopter in dangerous situations because of the life-and-death situation to which they had responded.
“We always had a safety margin, but it was really down to a minimum.”
Once word was received that the sole survivor had died, the pilot still knew he needed to extract the two rescue workers, or they would face a night on the crater wall with little or no shelter.
“I still had friends up there who were alive, and some who weren’t alive anymore,” he said. “We were still in charge of their safety, and in charge of helping them carry out their mission.”
A window of opportunity came, and he was able to extract the two rescue specialists late in the afternoon Wednesday.
Rostagno found out the Harter helicopter pilot was his friend Lundgren through communications with the Inter-Island ground crew at Port Allen.
Due to sheer physical and mental exhaustion (the overdue Harter helicopter call was Rostagno’s third rescue mission last Wednesday, after he had gone twice to Kalalau Valley and trail earlier that morning to extract injured hikers), and knowledge that “the ordeal was not over,” Rostagno, who lives in Po‘ipu, was able to get a good night’s rest Wednesday, he said.
The mission Thursday would be body recovery.
Thursday morning broke with cloudy conditions in the crater from the start, he said.
The bottom of the crater became a familiar landing zone, where rescuers would wait for hours for breaks in the cloud cover that would allow them to resume rescue efforts.
By the end of three days of this, both Rostagno and KFD rescue personnel assigned to the mission had sore backs and necks from constantly looking skyward for breaks in the weather, Rostagno said.
“Basically, we wait for hours in there. It was kind of funny and sad at the same time,” he said of the body soreness associated with the continual skyward gazing.
Although they knew no life remained on the ledge, there was a sense of urgency from the landing zone Rostagno came to refer to as “the hole” at the crater’s bottom.
Although three of the five bodies were recovered Thursday morning, one of the two remaining ones was Lundgren’s.
“I knew Mark was still up there, and I really wanted to get him out of there, because he was a friend, and out of respect for his loved ones,” Rostagno continued.
“I knew Mark a bit better than others because for awhile he was chief pilot of my roommate,” a pilot who worked for Harter before leaving the island.
The sound of friendship resonated in Rostagno’s words, and could be seen in his blue eyes.
Thursday afternoon brought the chance to drop two rescue specialists in to recover Lundgren’s body. But then the weather moved in again so fast that Rostagno was not able to pull anyone out quickly.
“So, it was very frustrating,” in part because Rostagno made the call to drop the rescuers in to recover Lundgren’s body.
“I feel responsible for them.”
A break in the clouds came as quickly as the weather had arrived, and Rostagno pulled out the two rescue specialists and Lundgren’s body in a litter, before calling it a day with the helicopter pieces and one body left on the face of the crater.
Besides Stokesbary, KFD rescue specialists involved in the operation at Wai‘ale‘ale were Kavin Kuwamura, Jason Ornellas, Alan Lizama, Clyde Weddell, Colin Wilson, Shawn Hosaka, Lance Yamada and Tracy Cummings.
Again Thursday night, Rostagno was able to sleep, perhaps more soundly because he had retrieved the body of his friend.
“He was a very experienced pilot, a very safety-minded pilot,” and played host to an annual safety meeting attended by pilots, representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, and others.
“I liked him as a person and as a pilot.”
Friday morning broke, and from Port Allen Rostagno could see the crater. He picked up the rescue specialists from the Kukui Grove Center landing zone, and sped for the crash site, approaching from the Westside because of the clearing he had seen earlier that morning.
A “huge hole,” the best recovery conditions of the daylight hours since the crash occurred, greeted the rescuers in the crater Friday morning. Quickly, two rescuers were dropped in, and the last body was recovered.
At Lihu‘e Airport, Harter employees and federal, state and county officials were surprised when the Inter-Island craft landed with the last body on board.
Looking towards the crater from the airport, those in Lihu‘e were fairly certain no further recovery efforts were possible Friday.
“It was a very lucky weather opportunity,” Rostagno said.
Saturday, Rostagno took the day off from flying, and turned his emotions back on. “I was forced to keep my emotional factor away” while flying, he said. “I was in charge of the safety of so many people.”
Saturday, sadness was allowed to be part of his equation. He was sad because he had lost a friend, but relieved of “lots of pressure” because he and the skilled KFD and Inter-Island team had accomplished its mission, he said.
“We put people and machines to the extreme.”
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
