HONOLULU — Pilots were at fault in two Hawai‘i crashes, one of which caused five deaths when a helicopter carrying couples celebrating wedding anniversaries went down on Kaua‘i, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Tour helicopter pilot Mark Lundgren,
HONOLULU — Pilots were at fault in two Hawai‘i crashes, one of which caused five deaths when a helicopter carrying couples celebrating wedding anniversaries went down on Kaua‘i, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Tour helicopter pilot Mark Lundgren, 44, a retired Navy pilot, failed to maintain proper altitude over a mountainous area on Kaua‘i while descending in poor weather in 2003, according to the NTSB, the federal agency that investigates air crashes.
Lundgren and two couples died in the accident at the 4,500-foot level of Mount Waialeale. The other victims were Edward Wadiak and his wife, Teresa, of Manassas, Va.; and Monica and Jeffrey Peterson of Denver.
The aircraft operated by Jack Harter Helicopters Inc. approached the side of the mountain in cloudy weather as seen on a passenger’s video camera recovered from the wreckage, the NTSB said.
“Within the last 14 seconds of flight, a descent was initiated, which increased in vertical speed to 2,000 feet per minute,” the report said.
Based on the flight path, the terrain and structural damage, “NTSB calculations indicated the helicopter initially contacted the mountainside with a skid while descending in at least a 45-degree nose-low pitch attitude.”
The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter tumbled down the slope and split in two. One of the women survived impact but died before she could be evacuated.
In a second crash, the NTSB determined that pilot Ward Mareels, 54, failed to use necessary caution when his twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed into the side of Haleakala on Maui in 2004.
Mareels was flying without instruments from Kahului to Kailua-Kona, the NTSB said.
He made no emergency radio calls and had normal conversations with the flight tower during his seven minutes in the air.
He was ejected from the airplane and thrown about 50 feet above the first point of impact.
In a report on a third Hawai‘i accident, the safety board concluded that engine damage from a foreign object forced a student pilot in a Cessna to make a forced landing on Maui in 2005.
The pilot was not injured.
