LIHU‘E — Federal investigators said Tuesday the 2019 Safari Aviation helicopter crash that killed seven was the result of the pilot’s decision to fly into poor weather conditions.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigators also called out the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to implement NTSB safety recommendations, including weather training for pilots, monitoring of weather-related operating procedures, and a weather camera program.
“When the NTSB issues safety recommendations, they are data-driven, supported by factual evidence developed from investigations, and are carefully crafted to prevent accidents,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy in a statement.
“The NTSB previously made 11 recommendations to the FAA to prevent accidents like this one, but our recommendations only work when they are implemented. It’s time for the FAA to act.”
The crash occurred on Dec. 26 2019 when a commercial tour helicopter collided with a cliff in a remote area near Koke‘e. The pilot and six passengers, three adults and three children, were killed, and the helicopter was destroyed.
According to the report, the weather had been favorable for most of the day, but shifted in an “atypical” pattern, with low clouds and rain moving in from the northwest.
The pilot, 69-year-old Paul Matero, decided to continue his tour into deteriorating weather, losing visual references before the helicopter struck the ledge. He was not licensed to fly solely by instruments.
“The pilot’s decision to continue the flight into deteriorating visibility was likely influenced by a lack of relevant weather information and an atypical weather pattern,” the report reads. It also states that he may have “inadequately assessed the weather conditions in-flight,” or that he was “overconfident in his abilities.
Though Matero was an experienced pilot, the NTSB said that he had not received “cue-based weather training” that addresses “local weather phenomena and in-flight decision-making.” The NTSB had recommended 15 years prior that the FAA implement this sort of weather training for Hawai‘i pilots.
In their first public board meeting since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday, the NTSB detailed key findings from their final report on the accident, and laid out recommendations.
Among their key findings was that a lack of aviation infrastructure — including weather cameras, radio communications and flight tracking — in certain areas of the state led pilots to rely heavily on their own assessments of weather conditions.
The FAA said in a release Monday that they had installed five weather cameras in Hawai‘i, including at Loleau and along the Powerline Trail on Kaua‘i, and that they plan to install 21 more by the end of 2023.
“The cameras provide pilots with near-real-time images of weather conditions at their destinations and along intended flight routes,” the release reads. “The FAA has taken input from local pilots, including where they encounter sudden weather changes and where accidents have occurred, to determine camera sites.”
One of the planned installments will be located near the site of the Safari crash.
The NTSB added that improved radio communications and flight tracking would allow “trained company flight support personnel who have operational control authority, continuous access to updated weather information and the ability to actively monitor the progress of the flights and communicate with pilots.”
They also recommended that helicopters install crash-resistant flight recorder systems to have a better sense of what happened in the event of future accidents.
The safety board voted 4-0 to adopt an outline of the probable cause of the crash, along with 10 total safety recommendations, including eight directed at the FAA. They also reiterated a series of recommendations to the agency.
Kaua‘i is a hotspot for helicopter crashes, with a total of 30 people killed since 2000.
From 2000 to 2020, TGI reported that the death toll from these crashes was higher than that of the entire rest of the state combined.
Kaua‘i has seen two deadly aviation accidents this year. On Feb. 22, a military-contracted helicopter crashed during a training mission at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, killing four. And on March 20, two men were killed when a Civil Air Patrol plane flying in poor weather conditions crashed in Kalalau Valley.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
