LIHU‘E — The biggest story in the crash of a light aircraft in Hanapepe Valley last August is that two people survived, said the pilot, Thomas Defino. Defino, a former Kaua‘i resident, is now in the Chicago area with his
LIHU‘E — The biggest story in the crash of a light aircraft in Hanapepe Valley last August is that two people survived, said the pilot, Thomas Defino.
Defino, a former Kaua‘i resident, is now in the Chicago area with his wife and three children, and said only the parachute saved his life, and that of passenger Neil Shoemaker.
“My God, we were at 4,000 feet,” Defino said during a telephone interview Friday morning.
The craft, known by federal standards as a light sport aircraft (not ultralight), hit what Defino called unseen, “clean-air turbulence that (threatened to) tumble us to the ground.”
“Without that chute we would be dead,” said Defino. “It’s amazing we were able to survive that.”
Defino suffered multiple injuries, including breaks to both legs, back and ribs, and lingering damage like a crooked nose and jaw, he said.
Shoemaker also suffered multiple injuries, and has filed a federal lawsuit in Honolulu against Defino and Defino’s former company, Birds in Paradise, claiming negligence.
“This is America. Who’s not going to do what he’s doing?” Defino said of the Shoemaker lawsuit. Defino said he wants the case to go to trial so he can tell his story to a jury.
“You’re alive to talk about it. To me, this is a happy landing,” Defino said. “We were at the mercy of God. This was an act of God.”
Defino, who continues to teach flying in Chicago, said his own pilot training kicked in when he, Shoemaker and craft were plummeting toward earth, and he deployed the parachute when he was trained to pull it, somewhere between 300 and 400 feet from the ground.
“You have to do what you’re taught,” and that’s survive, said Defino, who told federal investigators he lost consciousness after pulling the parachute.
Either the quick stopping caused by deployment of the parachute or his head hitting the craft’s control bar caused him to go unconscious, he said.
He had the presence of mind to remove a cotter pin safety device that is necessary before the emergency parachute can be deployed, he said.
Deploying the parachute effectively “threw on the brakes,” and prevented them from hitting the ground at what would likely have been a fatal rate of speed, he said.
While Kaua‘i Fire Department and Inter-Island Helicopters rescuers were able to get Shoemaker from the crash site to a waiting ambulance later the same day as the crash, Defino and two KFD rescue specialists spent the night in the valley when wind and weather conditions made their rescue impossible until the next morning.
“We were out there to teach,” Defino said of his role instructing Shoemaker on how to operate the aircraft at the time of the crash. “I’m a trainer,” and will continue teaching in Chicago, he said.
Doctors told Defino he wouldn’t be able to walk for six months following the crash, and three months later he was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, he said.
