POLIHALE — Two people were killed early Tuesday morning when an ultra-light aircraft operated by Birds in Paradise crashed into a mountainside near Polihale Beach on Kauai’s Westside.
Although authorities did not identify the pilot and passenger by press time, friends said one of the victims was Birds in Paradise owner and Kauai resident Gerry Charlebois.
Several messages of condolences were left on the Facebook page of Charlebois’ girlfriend, Julie Mann on Tuesday.
Kapaa resident Lori Barrett wrote it was a “sad day for most of us on Kauai.”
“We lost a very good, adventurous, smart, funny friend,” she wrote. “Julie Mann, we’ll get through this. RIP, my brother, Gerry Charlebois.”
Other friends told The Garden Island that the business owner was one of the victims.
Ed Kanoi, general manager of H Hawaii Media and a close friend of Charlebois, told TGI he heard the news from a friend of the family.
Kanoi described Charlebois as an “excellent pilot” and “good guy.”
“It’s a sad day,” he said by phone. “It really is.”
Tuesday’s incident marks the third fatal aircraft accident on Kauai since 2011.
A caller initially notified Kauai Police dispatch of a fire in the Polihale area around 7:50 a.m., where authorities discovered the blaze was caused by the crash. Firefighters confirmed the two fatalities around 9 a.m.
Birds in Paradise, LLC is a motorized hang gliding company which operates out of Port Allen Airport in Hanapepe.
Phone calls Tuesday to the company and Charlebois’ cell phone were not returned. The business was closed on Tuesday.
About 1 p.m., firefighters and emergency responders were able to recover the bodies from the steep cliffside, located about a quarter mile up the remote valley, and transport them to a nearby incident command center via a stretcher suspended below Air 1.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the Evolution Trikes Revo weight-shift-control aircraft, with tail number N98EV, crashed under “unknown circumstances.” The tail number is registered to Birds in Paradise on the FAA website.
KPD continues to investigate the incident, along with personnel from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board in Honolulu.
NTSB is the lead investigative agency, Gregor wrote.
The NTSB typically posts a basic preliminary report on its website within a week or two of an accident, he added.
Volunteers with Life Bridges, a grief counseling service, are assisting families of the victims.
In 2011, two separate light aircraft crashes resulted in the death of four people.
In February of that year, 55-year-old Jim Gaither, owner of Big Sky Kauai and a friend of Charlebois, crashed in the waters southwest of Port Allen, killing him and passenger Kim Buergel.
Three months later, in May 2011, an aircraft belonging to Kauai Aero Sport crashed off Kauai’s North Shore, killing two men.
An ultra-light aircraft registered to Birds in Paradise was involved in a crash on Aug. 1, 2009, about 12 miles northwest of Lihue, according to NTSB reports.
Both the flight instructor and his student, according to those reports, sustained serious injuries in that accident.
