The majority of the data from the September 24 Bali Hai Helicopter Tours crash that killed five people has been collected, said the investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board yesterday. But it may be a year before the final
The majority of the data from the September 24 Bali Hai Helicopter Tours crash that killed five people has been collected, said the investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board yesterday.
But it may be a year before the final report detailing the probable cause is finished, Nicole Charnon, the NTSB lead investigator said yesterday while giving reporters a tour of the wreckage at a Lihu‘e Airport hangar.
About 801475f the helicopter has been collected from the steep, muddy cliff, including a large portion of the tail rotor, the main rotor, doors, skids, that were retrieved Monday. An Inter-Island Helicopters team went up earlier in the day to salvage what they could.
“I’ve got a lot to work with here,” said Charnon. “I’m impressed. I don’t know how they picked up all this.”
Charnon said that the week-plus-long investigation has not revealed any “anomalies” in the structure of the aircraft.
The engine will be moved to its manufacturing plant, Allison Rolls-Royce, in Indianapolis, where Charnon said she will oversee its disassembly and attempt to determine if it had any problems.
“I want to tear it down, (although) externally it looks pretty good,” she said.
Today, though, she heads back to Honolulu to continue the investigation there.
The parts will be stored on Kaua‘i for future reference before being turned over to the owner, she added.
Looking over the debris, Charnon said that while there is evidence of a fire, most pieces were not thoroughly burned.
“I’ve seen worse,” she added.
While the right side seemed to have sustained the most damage, with the “doors spaghetti,” as Charnon described, the left side doors appeared to be more structurally sound. Also one main rotor was completely mangled, but one remained straight.
But Charnon warned not to read into the damage.
She stressed that with many moving parts, it was hard to determine exactly where the helicopter impacted with the ground, and what damage was sustained in the crash or might have been affected by sliding down the steep, muddy cliff-face.
“It’s really hard to say” at this point of the investigation, Charnon continued. Charnon said she has yet to determine the cause of the crash. That will come after a full investigation.
The pilot and four visitors killed in the crash were identified as Shankar Tummala, 39, of Kauai, the pilot; Willy Braun, 59, and Heike Braun, 38, of Germany; Tamara Zytkowski, 30, of Avon, Ohio, and Thomas Huemmer, 36, a lawyer from Avon, Ohio.
