KILAUEA — Feathers might have literally been ruffled this weekend when a “large, charcoal-colored military helicopter” flew at a “very high speed” less than 20 feet from native sea bird dwellings Sunday morning at the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge,
KILAUEA — Feathers might have literally been ruffled this weekend when a “large, charcoal-colored military helicopter” flew at a “very high speed” less than 20 feet from native sea bird dwellings Sunday morning at the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Kenneth Foote.
Aircraft passing over the refuge are recommended to keep a distance of 2,000 feet, he said.
Even though the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility confirmed that “none of its controlled aircraft” were in the area Sunday, officials at the Rim of the Pacific Exercise Maritime Operations Center reminded “all participating RIMPAC units flying in and out of PMRF to maintain safe altitudes and standoff distances from sensitive areas,” wrote PMRF spokesman Tom Clements in an e-mail Thursday.
RIMPAC is the military’s biennial training exercise expected to continue through the end of the month.
The aircraft on Sunday was reportedly heading east and passed within 30 feet of Moku‘ae‘ae Island — the islet located off Kilauea Point. It also passed within 20 feet of the coastline and “over and into the red-footed booby colony, then cresting Crater Hill,” Foote said.
The total period of time the flying machinery remained in and around the area was approximately 30 minutes, he said.
The activity was reported to PMRF whose dispatcher “contacted one of the ships” conducting the RIMPAC exercise “to remind them to ‘stay away’ from this coastline,” Foote said.
“We take our environmental stewardship seriously, and feel that PMRF and the Hawai‘i Operations Area is the best training range in the world for RIMPAC, and will work hard to conduct our operations in a way that is respectful of that value,” said Commander Greg Hicks, 3rd Fleet Public Affairs in a written statement Thursday when asked about the incident.
“Hawai‘i offers the best, most-capable ranges we have in the Navy and is one that is desirable by all the nations participating in RIMPAC,” said Hicks.
“Many of the national requirements that we have by the navies assembled for RIMPAC are specifically requested so as to operate and exercise off of the Pacific Missile Range Facility for which there really is no alternative.”
Low-flying aircraft in the area pose a risk not only to wildlife but to people as well, Foote said.
It has the potential to “churn up debris” and “startle” people and wildlife with its “excessive noise,” he said.
Additionally, low-flying aircraft creates stress in adult birds and their chicks, which increases the “chance of exposure to the elements possibly resulting in injury or death,” Foote said.
Eggs and chicks can “fall of the face of cliffs” and “harassed birds” that “take off in flight are subject to air strikes which often result in death,” said Foote.
Moreover, the bird strikes “pose a significant threat to the aircraft and crew’s safety,” he said.
No wildlife injuries or deaths were known to have occurred Sunday “to the best of our knowledge” and no “human injuries were reported,” Foote said.
